In the previous task, I had managed to discuss the convergence, its trend and the opportunity it brings. And as mentioned, this trend has a huge scope since there are lots of evolutions that had been gone through within the market, and in hand to this evolutions are the opportunity it had opened among the people. Making these people change their lives, the way they act and the way they think, thus later making a change to the world for people are the basis of its change. This task’s topic is a part of the previous task. Actually I had included a part of this to that text, introducing the part of consumers against prosumers, their death and most of all on how they had evolved and their main differences. I guess I’ll just have to elaborate it further more to make it through the word count. As we all know, market is about the producers and consumers (aside from the products they were involved in), producers by its name are the one who produces products for the benefit of the consumers. And consumers are the core of the market. Basically without them, market would not live for they are the one who uses and bought the products. These consumers and producers together with the market are all altered by the convergence, wherein convergence is the part where the market had adopted technology to bring a great development and changes. The eagerness of the consumers to have the new trend of technology (which is offered by the market) is mainly the cause of the evolution, for these people crave for more. The contentment of these people is really hard to meet, forcing the development for knowledge and technology, which is also a good thing. The adoption of technology by the producers had been also a way to create a battle and to show their competitive skills against the growing market standards and their competitors, which also leads for a healthy competitors that makes the balance out of it. As a result to this, producers are pushed to engage in several ways to cater their products, thus making the costumers secured about the benefit they can assure for the cost they had paid (simply the cost benefit – lesser cost of a certain product of service at a higher value of performance given). Again what is convergence? What is thing really about? How we had come up with this exotic idea and grabbed the opportunity of playing with the flow out of it… convergence as what we had discussed on the previous meeting is the union of the old fashioned market with the advance technology. Pulling the best of it, this convergence had mainly change the world through the use of market and technology, giving birth to a new trend of marketing. This had cleared several ways for entrepreneurs to involve technology on their businesses, having a different technology to offer and satisfy clients’ needs and wants. As the trend of conference expands lots of marketing ideas and techniques had been generated to deliver company products. . Internet technology is totally re-defining how businesses are being modeled and how business strategies are being implemented. As this convergence over the market had developed, the people’s quality of life style or their way of facing the market has changed. Having this evolution, it is a more convenience way of facing the market rather than going back to the old one which offers less service and just a bit of the cost – benefit factor. Before going on the part of consumers and prosumers, let’s first discuss the evolution of the market. At the present time, market had been changed, basically in the means of trading, paying, and etc. at the late century, the market is all about trading with the use of barter to exchange for the good, and as the evolutions come, barter had been deleted and the start of paying by coins (silver or gold) had been a way (as far as I could remember in my elementary lessons ), and that practice had continued until now with the use of money to pay for the goods. Formal marketing as we all know it today had began in the mid of 1970's with the birth of the marketing orientation. By funding up capitals to start a business in the market (in early days), business at that point was merely concerned with their construction, manufacturing, production, and efficiency issues to satisfy their costumers. Years had past and several changes in the market had been granted. The improvement of such services had changed to fit the changing needs and lifestyles of the consumers. Because of this a new stage for the development of the market had arrived, where in the main input is that the business's prime concern was to sell what it produced. The main plan of this is to secure the production rate of the business. They must specialize on something to optimize the categorization and quality of the products they sell. And then later, a new trend in the business marketing had emerged as businesses came to recognize that consumer’s needs and wants drove the whole process. They should dwell or base more on the costumers’ concern and value it. And this is the start were marketing research became popular and important and also the time were marketing competitions had became large and tough. Businesses realized it was futile putting a lot of production and sales effort into products that people did not want. And this was the start were the convergence or the technology had taken place in the field of marketing. They believe that the technology is available today to market to people on an individual basis. They had felt that it is no longer essential to think in broad comprehensive terms like market segments or target markets. The behavior of the market now most rely on the consumers or rather the prosumers, they had stop the believe of giving the people the overall result, but instead they had started a new approach which dwells more on having the products being personalize to achieve a higher satisfactory. The behavior of the said costumers had changed for they themselves are willing to participate in that certain evolution for they had found it better. The coin has been tossed and is now flipped, having them as the ruler of the market and the producers as the servant of their own game. Interesting and effective, that’s all I could say, for they had attracted huge percentage of the costumers by making that big innovation. Could it be possible for a new trend to enter the market and dominate it as what the present market form does?Death of consumers and the rise of prosumers…In the later part of marketing, the costumers are rather termed as consumers. Relating it to science, consumers are the one who consumes (considered by its name) the producers, these consumers is a part of the food chain, wherein several cycles where form and being studied. An example of these consumer and producer is a grass and a goat, on how the goat seeks for a living grass to consume it for the mean of survival. Going back to the topic, these consumers in the food chain are also related or have the same meaning on the consumers of the market, for they are the one who consumes the products being produced by the producers and helps the market grows to offer much more several items and services. The only thing that separates this two scenarios are the part of having the consumers as the predators who hunts for prey to survive the nature and the part of having the consumers as the buyers who buys the product and uses the services of businesses to have convenience and some are for savings. Consumers by their nature and behavior, they bought things over the market by simply picking and choosing the items they want, which takes lesser interaction between the market itself and the consumers of the market who takes the products and services. With these, it has been coined that the market had been ruling against the people or (much appropriate) the consumers, for they are the one who dictates the products and the consumers are just the ones who consume them. Where is the sense of having consumers’ rights? As the population of the people around the world changes every day, until now where it comes to billions of them, the demand for the supplies and services in the market increases, the behavior of these consumers had also been changed because of their population and distinct personalities, behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., friends influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization (people on the job make decisions as to which products the firm should use). Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products, the kind and quality of the product as well as the study of how they are purchased. Products use is often of great interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental problems result from product disposal (for example: motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills and scraps on the junkyard) this is also an area of interest. Prosumers has their distinct behavior which demands more and more, and for this they were considered too annoying and crying for better services which could handle all of them and could give them a lot more satisfaction of the payment they had been giving. For these matters, the market where oblige to find a way to offer these crying costumers what they want, basing on what they yell, what they do, considering their personalities and needs. Thus the evolution of the market together with the technology and the consumers within its scope had changed to a better one, which considers the consumers designs, wants and desires. Internet technology is totally re-defining how businesses are being modeled and how business strategies are being implemented. The excesses left behind by this large rate of innovation however are small businesses and entrepreneurs who are not equipped and unwilling to grip on the new technologies, mainly attributed to the fear of the unknown. Technopreneurs has provided the latest information on new, emerging Internet technology trends, sifting the hype from business reality. You will get the inside track on all things Internet technology that will impact your business tremendously. Business and technology are almost always entwined. The evolution of technology had led to the evolution of business. The one who spots technological trends and learns to use it, gains an upper hand over their competition. Because Technopreneur makes it a point to stay ahead of the game, you will receive the freshest, most relevant hindsight ahead of time. This will save you time, which you would better spend at what you already do best at – making money, the people involved in the market nowadays had been using the internet as the medium for shopping. Despite from being demanding, this new form of market users are intellectual and are technologically knowledgeable. Then these consumers where termed as the prosumers, for in this evolution the costumers somehow they had started it. This is now where the death of consumers had begun, for they had been replaced along with their behaviors, style and trends with a new one which fits the form of the growing society and fast changing technology. A good thing about this market is it considers having a lot of interaction between the business and the costumer, to ensure what they really like, desire and want, for them to be satisfied in short. To have a clarity and purity on what these prosumers are really about and what are they, on how they had been evolved and been described, here is a meaning from the Wikipedia - Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: (and several people among the internet had been discussing and debating about it, but for me it is about one thing, innovation and development to change our behavior, our lifestyle and probably the world), the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise. Prosumer as professional consumers which is all about the marketing and marketing segments; prosumer as the producer consumers which are about the independence of the consumers from the economy. Combining this, we could have a result of having these prosumers as the one involved in the market which has the independence of having what they desire and love. They completely have the power over the market, for they are the one who dictates what to do and what they would like to have. As the trend of conference expands lots of marketing ideas and techniques had been generated to deliver company products where in it is one way of calling the attention of the costumers or consumers. They had been widely using the technology to commercialize their products through using the internet as the main medium or other broadcasting tools and strategies. As the said convergence had changed, the people’s quality of life style and behaviors or their way of facing the market had evolved. People nowadays are much more called prosumers than consumers. There is what they state as the death or consumers and the rising of prosumers. In most cases on the market, people or the clients are the one who dictates the result (outcome) of the product. They make changes on specific products to personalize it and make it their original stuffs. Now this is still a way of engaging through costumer’s right? Giving them what they exactly want and need. It is rather much more interesting than having those readymade products, which you cannot manipulate the designs and features of it. And all of these make up what they call as prosumers. The involvement of technology within the market had really been putted up something fascinating for the prosumers and the business. It had opened several ways to come through the clients and make a deal with them. However, to reach a high degree of customization, consumers would have to take part in the production process especially in specifying design requirements. In a sense, this is merely an extension or broadening of the kind of relationship that many affluent clients have had with professionals like architects for many decades. Prosumers are considered as elite type of customers who have their own mind to think for specific fashioned styles which fits there need, wants and personalities. Prosumers would have rather spend their time on stressing what they want, that’s why they were called as professional consumers. With customization focused on leisure pursuits, this has been largely supplanted by a second pair of blurring roles: that of the professional and consumer. In particular, hobbyists have become ever-more demanding in the pursuits of their hobbies, often rising above the level of dilettante to the point of commanding skills equal to that of professionals. Pursuing on what they really want and need, these professional consumers would request a thing to satisfy their needs and demands.Prosumers versus Consumers…Prosumers versus consumers. What are their differences? This section was covered at the paragraph of the death of consumers and the rise of consumers. I had stated there their descriptions and differences. But again, in the era that the market has the control over the people, they termed the costumers as consumers who consume their products. And at the time of the convergence, where in the technology have merged with the market processes, peoples’ demands had grown and in this specific period they had been taking the control over the market and hence they were called the prosumers. Prosumers take the part of being participative in the field of marketing as the user or consumer of the products and services. These prosumers are more interactive. They demand for what they want and need to the producers for the market to produce it. Prosumers are veteran form of consumers who deal and interact with the market for services, unlike the consumers who used to buy or consume the goods and services in the market without any demand or suggestions, prosumers are more skillful that’s why they were termed as professional consumers.The evolution of the market from having its simple form to its complex and interesting form had been a great change that affected the quality of services and had largely contributed for the change of the world. The behavior and lifestyle of the people from being a consumer to a higher structure of being a prosumer had increased the quality of life. The start of having so called prosumers which emphasizes the meaning of giving the clients the trend to apply modifications, enhancements or requests on the purchasing product. Through the influence and behavior of the market prosumers, they had been changing the structure and scope of the market in a large percentage every now and then. Who knows, the evolution still continuous and there might be a more dominant form of market users (the producers and consumers to prosumers). Several concepts are still up to be discovered, but the thing is, is it as good as the other one? Be waiting for the next evolution of these market professionals.

One of the best topics that we had in our past discussion is Marketing Convergence. And we taught lots of new stuffs which best suit in the profession of being a good technopreneur as those who run businesses. There are many ways of how Marketing convergence is occurring nowadays. Indeed, “Death of the Consumer” is the main consequence or outcome of the convergence. It may sound negatively when we hear the word “death”. Right? But as far as I know that this death is a new avenue to arise something better than before. This “death of consumer” talks about the number of consumer that is being done. However, good thing newest consumer is now what we call “PROSUMER”. Yes! You heard it right. This term still refers to the person whom to buy and avail products and services. And there is a big difference of being a consumer before and a prosumer of today. Great wall between the two really matters. The advantages of being prosumer have a twist on the difference compare to the consumer. When I got first heard about the prosumer, I am eager to know more and get the pin point definition of it. Indeed, I spent my time browsed and searched some articles to justify and provide my needs. To give differentiate, lets define first the consumer. From the online encyclopedia which is Wikipedia, “Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary. Typically when business people and economists talk of consumers they are talking about person as consumer, an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy/not-buy decision. However there is a trend in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profiles and psycho-graphic profiles of market segments, marketers have started to engage in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization.” From that given definition, the consumer which those person decide buy or not to buy on the available products and services. A consumer is free to make decision on availing products and services. Just like a normal consumer, in order to make a right selection, we are able to ask from the seller how good their products may provide. When I remembered the lines once I have read somewhere, it says that “there are two kinds of foolish a consumer might have, it is to ask many times and not to buy or ask once then decide to buy”. So how is this line made foolish to the consumer, it is when clients are going ask questions in many times they are just wasting their time in inquiring then as a result if it not made them attractive they just say “Sige, mubalik rako unya” (I will return later on). Then it would be the sign of not fully satisfying in the marketing of products. Another thing is when consumers asks only for once and immediately purchase and pay for the products. This is very usual to those illiterate people who got too deceived by the seller quickly choose to obtain their selection. Now we also need to define and identify the prosumer. Still from the free online encyclopedia, defined the “Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise.” From that meaning, prosumer is still a consumer. However prosumer used the consumer-grade products. This grade means the standard of the product. If it has a high quality then it will also have highest percentage of consumer-grade and vice versa. Another thing, they are consumer targeted products, at consumer prices, but containing some professional-grade functionality. And lastly a prosumer is progressive or developing gradually over the time. They have their own choice. Prosumer doesn’t depend on the available products and services offer but they have a great involvement to denote active roles on the process.

Moving onward is the most crucial indicator of the feasible and practical of the economy will be on consumer spending. When you have to run business, you have to make sure that you have sufficient and well of number of consumer. If there are not enough consumers, there will be no recovery due any doubt to the negative characteristics of consumer data. The death of the consumer is receiving scant coverage. For the advantages of being a prosumer, they can immediately access to the new technology. Thus, this technology meets their specific requirements. For the company, it is important to strengthened relationship with the customer. They must have to demonstrate a willingness to keep their customers satisfied. And lastly, the company now has a new feature, product, service they can market to the customer. We as a customer are conscious on fast inquiring for the orders. Through the wide range of internet, we can simply request and find out the products that we are going to purchase. Aside from that it would be better to communicate through internet to less the time consuming and burden to travel a distance in order to buy products.

What makes a prosumer and consumer differ? A certain site stated that, a Prosumer is researching a products value, performance, and price through social networks (twitter, tumblr, facebook) and consumer product reviews (such as Amazon.com), and prices comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com and Thefind.com, before making a final decision or purchase. In that way it is clearly defined that a prosumer has a great involvement in choosing what the best is for the amount they are going to pay. In fact, within these web sites a Prosumer researches all aspects of a products performance, price and social acceptance in relative comparison to similar products within the same category. The Prosumer is searching for the highest quality product that best meets their personal needs for the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend. Based on that search criteria, the Prosumer is also willing to venture into new shopping distribution channels in order to purchase that product. As a matter of fact, a prosumer has a capability to take risk in order that he/she can undertake business venture that would lead to profit. Who founded the prosumer? The Prosumer terminology was identified by the Earl Jean Brand, where the company recognized a new consumer niche of premium denim consumers who because of the economic downturn desired a high quality, status image, socially acceptable and high performing jeans wear products at value prices.

Examples. 1. A very good example is a prosumer niche of a particular brand of jeans. That prosumer make customizing in his own style of a high quality of jeans. Not just that, a prosumer should be check the performance, price and the accurate value of an item which he/she is going to spend.

2. Another sample is when a prosumer is going to search and browse a certain online buying of foods such as McDonalds, a prosumer will just drag the menu or click the option of the combination of burger, how many patties and soon. The two above mentioned scenario are few for those happenings where “Death of a Consumer” occurred.

3. To give another sample is when a technological development that opens new opportunities, nor is it a new form of connectivity. What has developed is a specific style of how to interact with customers and with data, a style significantly different from the early stages of the Internet as mass media. Thus, current websites such as eBay and Amazon are primary examples of how to create added value through transparency and participation. In this way, these companies represent the “new” Web. When I have found the new objective of eBay, I was felt well on that. eBay has its new good format, eBay does not sell directly. In fact, it insists on being called a “venue”. A venue where eBay will going to offer to customers a place where they can become sellers and/or buyers. In eBay’s world, both seller and buyer are eBay’s customers. That’s an excellent idea to motivate ones life. There would be performance evaluations on the both side of buyer and seller. The seller pays for the privilege of selling (via a complex system of final-value fees levied against the total cost of the transaction), and only the buyer can leave negative feedback (a recent update to the feedback mechanism that resulted in a near rebellion of small- and medium-volume sellers). Indeed, eBay via Paypal offers a safety net of transactions, most transactions are self-regulating, and in short it could be adjustable. At the end of a transaction, both sides — seller and buyer — leave public feedback on a variety of the transaction’s aspects. For safety precaution, the customer will always remain anonymous or unknown to prevent illegal activity. Thus, in a manner of speaking, eBay’s customers take on the role of employees. And there is more: eBay offers its customers a whole range of venues for expression, ranging from discussion boards about coins or purses to help with transactions gone bad. What is interesting in these forums is that very few actual eBay employees participate; the content and answer providers are fellow eBayers. The eBay is just a new avenue to arise something good for the common good of both buyer and seller. Strategic plan, patience on taking risk and spending time is the capital on this matter. Like eBay, Amazon.com successfully deploys this strategy while defending its dominant market position. At Amazon, customers review and evaluate books, films, gadgets, clothes, food items, beauty products — anything that’s for sale on Amazon.

I had also read from a noble article in the internet. The article is in titled “Consumer or Prosumer” which is written last August 10, 2010 by Tim Moore. This is a very good article for those who got confused between the two matters. It specified here the buyer as a consumer “One that consumes, one that acquires goods or services for direct use of ownership” or “A heterotrophic organism that ingests other organisms or organic matter in a food chain”. By that definition, it’s all about the sale, which cares about the person. It is really selfish, demeaning view of our valued customers. Definitely, it is an old version of being a client. On the other hand, Prosumer is “One who is converse to the consumer, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process.” So what’s the best side of being a prosumer? It is they are interested in others first, sharing, giving, earning their trust. This means that consumer needs to express their feelings or opinions. This is also important, seller must have to consider the suggestion of the consumer, in order to modify and alter things for better. They are not just mindless “organisms” who just “consumes” matter. Tim Moore gave his point of view. It is that customers are critical. Just like what changing of today. We are living in a modern world. Right? Indeed, people are changing, their taste, likes and most especially their choices. We can get poor or rich service anywhere. This will also means that life is stressful; anxiety is growing as our neighbors in lives. Truthfully, procrastination or the putting off is up to 40%, rage and rudeness are increasing across the board amongst ‘service’ providers. One of the best standards mentioned in this article is the Apple Store (in fact, Tim Moore loves this store). How I wish to visit and buy gadgets in this magnificent store. This store is a perfect example of everyone in the company, top to bottom, viewing everyone that walks in the door as a Prosumer. It is stated on the article that they appreciate the services render by the Apple Company. They are going to help you, not to pressure. Not just like the other store we usually visit who will immediately get closer to you and ask if what you want. One of the preeminent factors of Apple Store is that their products are everything works and is never locked, feel free to use as you wish. See the beauty of Apple. They have the full trust to the prosumer not to snatch and steal on their high tech gadgets. In case you have something broken, Apple will provide the fix for free. And if you need a genius, go the genius bar and get excellent service from people who want to help you and get it right the first time. They will help you to choose and get some advices. Tim Moore shared that as a prosumer, he feels great and comfortable and surely he love to be back. That’s was really amazing and very attractive on the eye of the prosumer. So if we are going to ask on how should be able to be one of them. Well Tim Moore commends you for your honesty. More business leaders needs more humility when it comes to examining their business model and accepting that changing to a social media system is going to be disruptive to the current one in place, but it is critical. Yes this is true! Most of the seller use to fool their clients in terms of giving critics about their selling product and services. They will just stress the good side and never mention on the possible instances that a product might be imparted. Just to bear and gain profit from their dirty-old strategic plan of marketing. As those of us who run businesses, they find themselves in the most anxiety filled time in modern history; along with that, there are a couple of obstacles they have to acknowledge first before proceeding. Or shall we say, there are capitalist who don’t have an adequate knowledge on handling business but they just have the sufficient strong vibes on taking risk. Today’s climate is hard on business leaders, with uncertainty at every turn, the complexity of adjusting to new demands, increasingly shorter product lifecycles, and competition.

Here are just a few helpful suggestions by Tim Moore, to see things from the Prosumer’s perspective that may help tweak or make something adjustment in operation and get us on the right path without having to do a lot of heavy lifting:

1. Understand we are all in the same boat. Every business is in the similar situation. They are all struggling to catch up the social behavior of customer and have to gain profit from it. Not just to earn money but to have a good relationship towards them. Some of the customer feels like being only treated a customer. In which some of them left feel like suspicious and distrustful. Sellers are really defensive on the price of the products and services they have. While on the prosumer side, he/she would effort to search on the internet to find cheaper. So as a result of it most of the people will only have work and face on the computer while the business profis of the community dwindle or decrease. To solve this, we should have to lift or hands on the computer and look and realize the situation and do something about it.

2. SEE the goal. To run business the only goal of it is to gain profit and growth. Right? But it is not just about it. The only way to have it is to build customer’s equity or the trust of the customer. The prosumer should have only to see and realize that there is no hidden agenda on your business. It’s not only about selling your product, but what’s important is to help and learn them from their experience. You shouldhave the resolution of experiences that they have. And finally peak an interaction with you. Look hard on your operation you still have enough time to change and apply some of the good principles.

3. Make the shift ASAP. Most of the company still operates the advertisement to use media and advertise their sales. According to BTW, they earn trust, it’s not automatic, it takes time and isn’t as easy as advertising it, we must make the shift from ’selling things’ to noticing people! We need to build a desire with our Prosumers, cultivate relationships, and create a sense of comfortable community for them. One of the good formula shared on here that Thoughts + Feelings = Actions. This would help to apply those thoughts and feelings to become the reality of that solution. Prosumer’s experience when we get an opportunity, that we are going to dazzle them with service, since we are all human, using my formula will create: Trust + Desire = Purchase, and continued experience results in loyalty and advocacy.

Indeed, the “Death of the Consumer” is not a problem or an issue which needs resolution. It’s about arising a new avenue for the clients to have a great involvement and role on the operation a new “Prosumer” is now born. Prosumer has an enormous power to enhance the growth of the community. Now it’s my turn to ask you. How do you view your customer? You should ask them. You have to know what their recommendation is, deal with them and learn from their experience. Look hard. A good technopreneur must be on it.

Last exercise, I have discuss about convergence, what are the trends and opportunity on it. Again, convergence is the merging of distinct technologies, industries, or devices. In technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications), and video that now share resources and interact with each other, synergistically creating new efficiencies. It is the trend of technologies to merge into new technologies that bring together a myriad of media. While historically, technology handled one medium or accomplished one or two tasks, through technological convergence, devices are now able to present and interact with a wide array of media. It leads to devices that are designed specifically to replace a number of different devices. The Apple iPod, for example, while originally conceived of as a portable music player, is now touted equally as a portable video player, photo album, and radio tuner. Cell phones, as well, have moved far beyond their beginnings as simple voice communication devices and now offer the functionality of personal music players, digital cameras, and text messenger systems as well. Convergence can increased market competition has lowered barriers of entry to the market for new operators and service providers. The emergence of new market players intensifies competition, giving consumers an extensive pool of providers and services to choose from and lower communication costs. Additionally in a technological convergent environment industry boundaries become blurred, allowing service providers to offer services in multiple markets. For example, besides access to television, cable operators can also offer voice telephony and internet services. Content providers can now easily access consumers with no need to own the distribution network. For example, a company may produce TV content and distributed it through cable networks without having to own it. It gives rise to new services and applications, which are bandwidth intensive, requiring an existence of broadband infrastructure. Only with broadband access is the use of complex services (e.g. multimedia services) attractive or possible in the first place. While developed economies may not face a bandwidth shortage dilemma, the same may not be said about most of the developing economies where telecommunication infrastructures are still relying on narrowband technologies. These countries face the challenge of having to upgrade their infrastructure or miss on the benefits of the technological convergence. In meeting this challenge, as it was in the past, financial constraints will continue to be a problem. In conclusion, convergence offers massive opportunities for the development of new value-added services, convenience, efficiency and the expansion of markets and consumer choice. It also raises a number of issues of adjustment to the new environment by telecom operators, service providers, policymakers, regulators, and users.Now let’s talk about industrial market, Industrial markets often require a slightly different marketing strategy and mix. In particular, a business may have to focus on a relatively small number of potential buyers (e.g. the IT Director responsible for ordering computer equipment in a multinational group). Whereas consumer marketing tends to be aimed at the mass market (in some cases, many millions of potential customers), industrial marketing tends to be focused. Market is any one of a variety of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby businesses sell their goods, services and labor to people in exchange for money. Goods and services are sold using a legal tender such as fiat money. This activity forms part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange items. Competition is essential in markets, and separates market from trade. Two persons may trade, but it takes at least three persons to have a market, so that there is competition on at least one of its two sides. Markets vary in size, range, geographic scale, location, types and variety of human communities, as well as the types of goods and services traded. Some examples include local farmers' markets held in town squares or parking lots, shopping centers and shopping malls, international currency and commodity markets, legally created markets such as for pollution permits, and illegal markets such as the market for illicit drugs. The concept of a market is any structure that allows buyers and sellers to exchange any type of goods, services and information. The exchange of goods or services for money is a transaction. Market participants consist of all the buyers and sellers of a good who influence its price. This influence is a major study of economics and has given rise to several theories and models concerning the basic market forces of supply and demand. There are two roles in markets, buyers and sellers. The market facilitates trade and enables the distribution and allocation of resources in a society. Markets allow any tradable item to be evaluated and priced. A market emerges more or less spontaneously or is constructed deliberately by human interaction in order to enable the exchange of rights of services and goods.A "buyer" or merchandiser is a person who purchases finished goods, typically for resale, for a firm, government, or organization. They acquires, or agrees to acquire, ownership (in case of goods), or benefit or usage (in case of services), in exchange for money or other consideration under a contract of sale. Also called purchaser. See also customer. Buyers is a Professional purchaser specializing in a specific group of materials, goods, or services, and experienced in market analysis, purchase negotiations, bulk buying, and delivery coordination. A “seller” is an entity that makes, or offers or contracts to make, a sale to an actual or potential buyer. Also called vendor, particularly the one selling a real property.A retail buyer is responsible for planning and selecting a range of products to sell in retail outlets. The buyer must consider the following factors when making purchasing decisions: customer demand (price, quality and availability); market trends; store policy; financial budgets.Buyers source new merchandise and review existing ones to ensure products remain competitive. By fully understanding customer needs, they are able to maximise profits and provide a commercially viable range of merchandise at competitive prices. Keeping up to date with market trends and reacting to changes in demand are key elements of the role.Retail buyers have a considerable amount of responsibility and autonomy in what is often a pressured environment.In a market there is a buyer which is the customer. A customer market includes many types of customers. Paying consumers choose where they shop and what products they purchase for a variety of reasons. Types of customers who make up a customer market include loyal customers, customers who shop at a discount, customers who buy things for fun and customers who shop to browse. A customer base can also include employees who use the product or service they make, as well as indirect customers who use the product or service although someone else purchased the product at the store.The seller which is the provider of the goods or services or completes a sale in response to an acquisition or to an appropriation or to a request. There follows the passing of title (property or ownership) in the item, and the application and due settlement of a price, the obligation for which arises due to the seller's requirement to pass ownership. Ideally, a seller agrees upon a price at which he willingly parts with ownership of or any claim upon the item. The purchaser, though a party to the sale, does not execute the sale, only the seller does that. To be precise the sale completes prior to the payment and gives rise to the obligation of payment. If the seller completes the first two above stages (consent and passing ownership) of the sale prior to settlement of the price, the sale remains valid and gives rise to an obligation to pay.When dealing with a customer market, an important part of maintaining the customer base is good customer service. As good deeds carry a business by word of mouth, word of bad customer service spreads quickly. Because each customer usually has a circle of friends and family who are either customers or potential customers, bad customer service has a greater impact on the potential customer base of a business than the loss of one customer alone. By training associates at a customer call center to handle customer complaints well, a business cannot only achieve effective customer retention, but can also grow through increased loyalty and customer recommendations as a result of effective customer service. Customer marketing is designed to help a business understand customer complaints by tuning in to the voice of the customer. Businesses often give surveys to customers to get feedback that gives them a clearer understanding of how customers think. Keeping in tune with the desires, complaints and experiences relayed by customers helps a business better streamline the customer experience. Growing a customer base means tapping into some of the non-customer market. This non-paying market segment is the portion of available consumers who do not currently use a product or service. Non-customers can be reached in many ways, including advertising online, in print, and on the radio and offering low prices to introduce the business. The definition for non-customer used in customer marketing differs from that used in retail store management. In retail, a non-customer is sometimes used negatively to describe an unprofitable patron who may steal, sample without the intent of buying, or demand goods or services at an unreasonably low price.Death of the consumers, from Consumer to Prosumer. Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialistor other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise. This word is becoming fairly common but can be confusing, as it has two meanings. It was blend of producer and consumer. It is used to describe a possible future type of consumer who would become involved in the design and manufacture of products, so it could be made to individual specification. It argued that we would then no longer be a passive market upon which industry dumped consumer goods but a part of the creative process. It is called mass customisation, in which everybody is in effect a member of a niche market, something Internet e-commerce is encouraging through cutting out the middleman between maker and buyer. This sense of prosumer has been taken up by some marketing people, but remains limited in its application.The second usage describes a purchaser of technical equipment who wants to obtain goods of a better quality than consumer items, but can’t afford professional items (older terms for goods of this intermediate quality are semi-professional and industrial quality). The word is a blend of professional and consumer. Prosumers of this sort are famed for their enthusiasm for new products and their tolerance of flaws and, from the marketing point of view, have much in common with early adopters. This usage is common among those selling video equipment, digital cameras, and similar goods (and the examples below illustrate this sense). Some manufacturers treat the SOHO (Small Office, Home Office) market as being much the same thing.A dealer’s client base is typically broken down into two broad types of customers: commercial and consumer. A growing segment of the consumer market, however, is the prosumer market. Prosumers, residential customers who prefer to run commercial-grade equipment, have become an increasingly important customer group, even to commercially focused dealers.As landscape contractors feel the bite of rising operating costs, some are choosing to pass those costs onto their residential customers. As a result, some of those customers are choosing to start doing their own yard work again. Example, Those people were paying a contractor to cut their yard. But now they can go cut their yard in 15-20 minutes on their own machine, making it look good and feeling good about doing it themselves. For some prosumers, the decision is based on need. For others, it’s about image. Example, I have the people who know what they need and are willing to pay for it, and then I’ve got the people who come in after seeing the commercial guys riding around and want to try the same equipment. Meeting Prosumer Needs. Whatever the reason, more and more dealers and manufacturers are tapping into the growing market. Selling to the prosumer market brings in a large sale—but not with a lack of effort. Selling to the prosumer means attracting them with mid-level equipment options as well as services and financing that meet their needs.The prosumer’s service needs are similar to that of the traditional consumer. However, the prosumer is looking for something more from their equipment which is the durability and performance. For example, We saw a change at the end of the 2007 season where a lot of our customers were asking about heavier-duty units that would hold up longer than the mass merchant units they were used to,They shop the lines of equipment that offer heavier-duty units at a reasonable price. When a prosumer comes in to buy equipment that greatly exceeds the quality of what they would find in a big box store, they expect that piece of equipment to last a long time. Thus, more money is to be made when they return for ongoing maintenance and repairs.Prosumer service needs are not as demanding as commercial cutters, but prosumers may expect more than the regular consumer customer might. Example, They are not as demanding as the commercial cutters, because they don’t cut grass but one time a week, Their main concern is that if they spend that extra money for the equipment, they should be able to get parts and service without having to take it all over town like they had to do with their mass merchant units. The prosumers want to save the time and money they previously wasted maintaining their lower-end equipment. the prosumer service requirements are not necessarily a need, but more of an expectation. Most prosumers don’t want to do their own service, but with the perception that they are moving up into a higher-quality machine, they expect the service to follow that. They are not as demanding as a commercial cutter, but they do feel that they have moved up the ladder and their service expectation has done the same. Timely service can go a long way with prosumer satisfaction. With consumer confidence down, some dealers feel the prosumer market may shrink this year. Others expect a growth spurt as more homeowners begin doing their own lawn maintenance. Regardless, spending some time and money to attract this growing market will likely pay big dividends—either now or in the future.

As the generations changes a lot, the disposition and temperament of the people also changed. Changed occur because of the things that currently exist right now that make the thinking of the person change. Ever since, people as consumers will only act as a plain consumer; who only buys those available products they have seen each day. On account of the internet and some technological piece, the people who used to be called consumer will now called as PROSUMERS. There is now occurring the concept of DEATH OF THE CONSUMER in trade concerns. Some studies presented that some socialize country already engage in the craze of raising the Prosumers. By now, they are currently practicing the thought of changing the old fashion of buying into the new one which is making the people to have the freedom to choose and request on whatever they wanted to. It only indicates that the paradigm changes a lot, even as to the action of the people around the society. Some sources says that because of the internet, that is why the paradigm of consumer changes. It is the thought of adoption of the internet by the consumers that jives to the present trends. Unfortunately, Philippines did not do the same trait. The consumers of the services or goods in any businesses are acts as nothing changes. The practice of buying and the act of consumer do the same.

The term prosumer for me was coined after the impact of internet into the society where anyone can make individuals’ desires. Actually, because of the paradigm that gradually changes; from the fact that consumer before became now prosumers in which this prosumers takes up the position of being producer. So, after which those changes, the paradigm changes from consumer to prosumers then producers. In the view of the fact that prosumers acts the same as producer, prosumer now is the source of creation of something, the starter of making up to the minute and modernistic ideas. The idea came following the scheme of World Wide Web where you can do anything what you are wanted to do. Its here where the shifting of the paradigm changes, where less than ten years after going ordinary, the Web returns to its roots as a read/write tool while entering a new, more social and participatory phase as specified in the site publicculture.org with their article entitled From Consumer to Prosumer to Producer: Who Keeps Shifting My Paradigm? (We Do!). Quantified their, that many interactive available features of the Web have merged into a trend many now are calling Web 2.0 – “a new and improved Web”. Because of the changes immense at the present, the consumers as prosumers now do have a prodigious role in business firms. As a consequence of the resulting Web 2.0, many people now are adopting the internet a great deal – from the reasons of communications, updated trends and a lot more. After those circumstances stated, the essence of the death of the consumers is describing the phenomena that consumers are not just merely consumers but becoming producers, too.

The death of the consumer arise because of the innovating changes happened in the society, every now and then; there are changes occurs. That could probably furnish immense impact to the human kind. The ending concept of consumers makes the raising notion of PROSUMERS. First, let as define what prosumers is. Prosumers defined in wordIQ.com as “refers to one of two possible portmanteaus formed by contracting either the word producer or professional with the word consumer. Further, prosumer has taken on conflicting spins: the business sector sees the prosumer as a means of offering a wider range of products and services whereas activists sees the prosumer as having greater independence from the mainstream economy”. This is to employ that prosumer is coined after the idea and characteristics of producers and consumers. The idea of this matter is to make the merging action of consumers in to one. Here, the consumer will have the right to acts the role of producers which is to present the products into the consumers. The consumer itself will be able to give suggestions and request to the business corporate on what kind of products or product they wanted to purchase. They happen now to have the right to dictate the business firms to whatever they wanted to have as long as it goes under the business specialty. Since, the consumer will now have the right to say; it is the task of the producer to level up their services to enable to meet the needs of the consumers. The idea is that the paradigm changes into consumers to prosumers act. In that sense, the prosumers is much demanding, insistence on their demands to the producers.

In my own understanding and perspective, the death of the consumers means taking off of the things that acted by the consumers before. It is the Rise of the prosumers which provides the right to the prosumers to act as a producer. By this matter, the consumers will be discard and redress to be a prosumer one. To give the idea understandable, I have here another description of PROSUMERS. According to www.wisegeek.com, “the concept of a prosumer is a late 20th century idea that combines some of the common characteristics of a professional and a consumer”. So, it means that the idea of prosumers already exist in a couple of years and yet, not seen, notice and recognize by the people. The term prosumers is generally applied to situations where consumers are considered to have reached a level of sophistication that the professional-consumer can effectively dictate the perimeters for the production of goods and services in terms of quality and structure. Prosumers are now common in many fields that were once the sole province of professionals. One of the areas where the prosumer has gained a high degree of visibility is in the home improvement industry.

The wave of the prosumers came from the products of the marketing convergence, the dignam articles imparted a brief actuality why death of the consumer arises at the present time. It dignifies the “three main factors that marketers identify in the rise of the prosumer", (1) being two-way technology, such as SMS and the web, (2) greater brand literacy, and (3) the possibility of mass customization. The first factor which is “being two-way technology” signifies that technology have led the way of innovations to the people. It involves ways technology gives way to meet the needs of the people. Here the technology of internet, smart phones came up, that is why we do have available resources now of transferring money through the used of SMS. It would be easy for the prosumers to make transactions along the world in just a minute time. As well as the continuous merging usage of web which enables people to communicate around the web, also as to make business deals. Like what had shared by our facilitator of the course technoprenuership, it’s a best example that of buying any item available online. Like on what he did, he just viewed the website of a certain venture and then made transactions with the management and then the few days later, BOOM!.. The product is already received. That only proves that web provides a trouble-free lifestyle to the people .The next one “greater brand literacy”, this factor has a definite impact to the moving revolution of technology. As what Guy Kawasaki aforementioned on one of his inspiring videos, he emphasizes that in connection of being with the innovating technology, we must be capable of being revolutionary in which we must be original in any thing we do or will do; everything that we planned to do must do have the brand to compete with others, the same as the quality factor of a thing. And lastly is the “possibility of mass customization”. This tells that the prosumers are provided a aptly of making customizations in anything that possesses the procedure of the available services of any business. It gives conditions of having a free well of a costumer no matter what he wanted to. These presented factors enable increased communication between the consumer and the producers, more to the benefit of the consumers. And to facilitate the cost efficient exchange of information, the mass-production of personalized products and services, and the immediate contribution and improvement in any kind of open source projects.

Made possible by the existing marketing convergence in business, this has leaded the way to make the consumers “active prosumers”. Commencing the idea of the rise of the prosumers, where the great engagement of prosumers came into reality and consumers to give a deep communications between the both parties. Because of the resulting convergence of prosumers, many effects are observed that has attained by the concept of prosumers. Blog entitled MARKETING GEEK observed that brands and their underlying business models are falling into three different categories of dealing and interacting with the “Prosumer” concept:

(1). Brands like Wikipedia or Firefox that can only exist through Prosumers. Their whole business model relies on the contribution of consumers. It is pretty obvious that these kind of businesses available over the internet is made successful because of the immense communication of the consumers or their clients to have a time to engage on a thing. These kinds of businesses are dependent on the awareness of the consumers and the willingness of them to communicate and make a move to have a deal on it. In other words, the businesses in this fashion are just moving because of the existing prosumers.

(2). Brands like Lego, Haagen-Dazs or Addidas who allow the incorporation of Prosumers behavior in two ways: either as contribution to their own product design and creation process. Like of what havaianas had brought to the minds of the consumers, these brands are granted one of the three factors stated above which is to increase the availability of customization on a thing wherein clients wanted to have. Another example is the Haagen Dazs’ ice cream flavor competition, and or as the opportunity to personalize their own version of the brand’s product as such introduced by the Addidas customized shoes, and;

(3.) Brands like Pepsi or Frito-Lay that open up very slightly their brand control to allow consumers to create TV spots or naming rights, all rather on the fringe of their brand experience. This brands are a valuable largest part of the prosumers in which some are argued that these brands don’t really embrace the concept of “Prosumers” but merely pretend to take them serious by allowing them to influence non-core elements of their brand experience.

A prediction over the internet says that the rise of the Prosumer will continue and influence a larger percentage of a company marketing activity. But there will be always a large role for brands which apply strong control and an iron fist in designing its brand experience such as the Apple Co. This kind of business might allow the Prosumer to play in a well limited way but the core of its brand experience will be centrally defined and designed. In general, the idea formulated there is that any marketer needs to find the right long-term path within these three different strategic options of integrating strongly or lightly the Prosumer, all in alignment of what makes a particular brand successful. But no brand can ignore the Prosumer anymore. This only proved that because of the death of the consumers, many business will be affected but not in a negative way but rather in a more definite, strategic and systematic way of managing business.

To emphasize more what is prosumers or the idea of the death of the consumers, I have given here some simple examples and a day to day scenario we have encountered. Me, myself also have been noticed the available services which offers the idea of changing the consumers to the prosumers. In one of the malls located here at Davao, there is one goods seller company who propose the new approach to the people – that is the Havaianas Corporation. They came up to the idea of selling their slippers in accordance to what they customers want. In that way, they gave the right to their clients to customize and create each desired designs. By that, they have given the chance to their clients to become a prosumers which almost like of. The second one is in one of the fast-food sellers in the city – the MCDO fast-food chain. MCDO itself provides an over the counted services via internet to their valued customers. The website takes account of the customers who are surfing over the internet. The valued customers will do have the chance now to demand what ingredients they are wanted to have on their orders. It belongs to the customers itself, whatever things they would like to have. All those stated simple examples above best describe the death of the consumers and the raising of the prosumers.

The paradigm did not do changes only on goods and services offered to the people; even a number of household tasks are affected already by the essence of prosumers. For instance is in the area of cooking. Cooking is another area where unprofessional have become more proficient, the idea of it is merging the thoughts of professional-chef and ordinary cooking style. As a result of it, the prosumers creates the bridge gab between the people who prepare simple meals for the household and persons who are trained as professional chefs. One of the ways on how to make it impossible is by through having culinary education through cable television. In that way, it would be easy for those prosumers who are willing to learn about cooking extraordinary meals which they seen only on restaurants before. The second one is the combination of affordable computer technology and the Internet. By this, it becomes impossible to the prosumers to assume a place in the world of publishing. This is made impossible by those software programs and high quality printing materials and equipment. The prosumer can now produce hard copy, instant copies and electronic magazines on a favorite hobby or interest. The same as the desktop publishing, which allows these highly skilled amateurs to produce high quality greeting cards, promotional brochures, and a wide range of published material. As stated in the sources in the internet, even fledgling, inexperienced and unpracticed writers can be classified as prosumers, simply by using current technology to product an electronic book for distribution.

These examples deal on the involvement of the people to internet services. It’s pretty amazing that the Internet media has reached this many people adopt so rapidly, and no other media has grown this fast. If we look at individual countries, the proportion of consumers and businesses accessing the Internet is startling. This only means that a great number of people are currently engaged in a thing “INTERNET”. The changes that occurs now is not merely a technological development that opens new opportunities, nor is it a new form of connectivity. Rather, what has developed is a specific style of how to interact with customers and with data and also to the producers, a style significantly different from the early stages of the Internet as mass media. It provides bridges to take one step forward to reach the innovative style of living. It signifies that technologies are not only changes as well as the people whom are using it. Another example of providing services to the prosumers is the most famous site of eBay. This site does not sell directly, but, rather, offers its customers a place where they can become sellers and/or buyers. Which best describes the thought of prosumers. The business model of eBay, combined the prosumer behavior with employee activity, allows all participants to feel like they have “skin in the game” or working individually on the business— the lively and passionate discussions in the forums whenever a new policy is introduced bear witness to that. Here, they are freedom in both two parties in whatever they like.

The prosumer can also be associated with a number of other fields as well. Photography, interior decorating, and even the beverage industry have a number of people who qualify as prosumers. As technology continues to evolve, there is no doubt that the prosumer phenomenon will continue to grow. I was pretty so much inspired on what I have read in the internet about the blog “the rise of the prosumers” in which gives first perceptions of prosumers to the students. It was spelled out there that how will students giving the determination to become an efficient prosumers. The students of the society like ours “are all prosumers and each one of us can be a systematic broadcaster or publisher of content. The ink is no longer exclusively controlled by scholarly institutions and publishing houses. That is a good thing! It means that we, students can be active in developing meaning, identity and strategies to deal with their world. It means that we can be connected to internal and external networks to advance our learning and build upon our knowledge base. It means that we can all benefit from an expanding pool of resources to access and analyze. And as long as we taught to critically appraise materials and strive for a wide range of sources to build reference points, authentic learning will continue to thrive.

Certainly, the thought of death of the consumers is not relies on the matter of finishing the race of consumers in the business world but rather to have the society engage in a thing of making the consumers to be a knowledgeable prosumers which are capable of providing ideas to the available business firms around the world. From this matter, it has given the hint of the new generation in which the new concept is born to give changes to the existing trade and as well as to the improving status of the people as PROSUMERS! The future is HERE!

What? "DEATH OF THE CONSUMERS"? Where did they go? What happen to them? Who is the primary part of the chain of the economy today? Do the consumers exist today? All those questions are coming from us when our instructor taught that very intriguing and exciting topics.

What is consumer anyway? From the site “Consumer is an individual who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale. A consumer is someone who can make the decision whether or not to purchase an item at the store, and someone who can be influenced by marketing and advertisements. Any time someone goes to a store and purchases a toy, shirt, beverage, or anything else, they are making that decision as a consumer. But consumer has different to customer. The terms "consumer" and "customer" are often used interchangeably, but a consumer and customer are not always the same entity. In essence, consumers use products while customers buy them. A consumer may also be a customer and a customer can also be a consumer, but situations occur where this is not the case. In general, your marketing efforts should be geared toward the consumer, rather than the customer. Customers are the ones who purchase your products. Consumers are the ones who actually use your products, so the customer may not be the actual consumer of your product. For example, suppose you own a small business that manufactures and distributes children's games or toys. While the children are the actual users, or consumers, of your product, they are not your customers. Instead, the customers are the parents of the children who actually purchase your products for them. The difference between a consumer and a customer impacts how you market your products. Customers will buy your product only if consumers demand your product, so your marketing efforts should target the end user as opposed to the buyer. Using the children's toys example, your marketing efforts should be geared toward exciting the children about your products so they will ask their parents to make a purchase. Those are coming from the internet article. To elaborate more on my own understanding we are the primary elements in the economy or the main factor of one business, without the consumer there was no business now that is successful. Since we are the primary component who uses the products and services of the company, we are the one who can make the company or business a successful one. We are the everyday purchaser of a high quality or standard, either on an absolute scale or service in retail. My second thought it describes a purchaser of technical equipment who wants to obtain goods of a better quality than consumer items, but can’t afford professional items. Here, the word is a blend of professional and consumer. In my case when I purchase something I move through a series of steps like:

• Act of identifying the problem – I always do these when or during I buy some stuff especially in expensive price. Though the product is brand new we can’t denied the fact that there are some bug or problem but at all the items. Consider the factory error, for example buying a brand new laptop then after 1 day of purchase there are some damage that able to function in the specification of the laptop. So it is better to identify explore the items before purchase it.

• Examine the product for concealed items – the second one is to make search about that item so that you can recognize that items and make a canvass. Look around to an area and ask to your friend or other people for such as sale orders, opinions or suggestions.

• Other possibility assessment of value – the act of examining something in order to judge its value, quality, importance, extent and condition. Since you are finding a alternative way or alternative things that able to serve as a substitute or the possibility of choosing two different things.

• Act of choosing or power to choose – of course we have a power or a decision to choose one product or we can choose what the items that qualifies to our standard are.

• Notice to the acquisition evaluation – make a evaluation to the price of such items. Moreover you are using money to buy that item makes sure you have the quality item that you have to purchase.

Today the market and industry are doing a paradigm shift. There is marketing convergence. So much for that there are also a trend of marketing convergence it is depending on the demand or result, needs and wants of the community. Century ago and many years grown up from the old era, now we are now in the era of technology the demands or requests of the human beings are more growing and growing according to their wants and needs it is increasingly high. A convergence of technology has a result that gives the consumers the convenience of having a changeable or they can customize according to their wants and can give there needs according to the style of living. When technological convergence first gives birth to a new multi-technology, the various technologies it is comprised of are usually at a slightly lower standard than independent devices. Usually within a year or two, however, this disparate quality is reduced to a virtually unnoticeable level. Technological convergence if appropriately managed can play an important role in national economic and social development of every nation. Governments can capitalize on the opportunity to stimulate market development and meet previous unmet society communication needs.

That was one of the reasons why the consumer today is death. Since the new era or the style of living today have different way in growing more capable one. Not like in the pass years our industry of business are common and ordinary business, like producing such product that they made then sell it to the market. The consumers can choose only a different color or even a shape. They can’t customize their stuffs on their wants and needs. Can you imagine? The old era of our business can’t give our satisfactory not only our self but also our money expending much of it. Readymade products that can’t be customize and can’t be change according to our wants and needs, it is satisfying to you? Some are satisfied on what they offer. But what if we change it from new era that the consumers can create and change according to their style or we called it wants. The new era improve the marketing today. Other reason why the market is now shifting to the new paradigm because the convergence can increased market competition has lowered barriers of entry to the market for new operators and service providers. The emergence of new market players intensifies competition, giving consumers an extensive pool of providers and services to choose from and lower communication costs. Additionally in a technological convergent environment industry boundaries become blurred, allowing service providers to offer services in multiple markets. For example, besides access to television, cable operators can also offer voice telephony and internet services. Content providers can now easily access consumers with no need to own the distribution network. For example, a company may produce TV content and distributed it through cable networks without having to own it. I relate this last topic because it is the reason why the consumer is death.

We already know what is consumer. The consumer is now signing off. What a topic isn’t? This topic is all about a dying era for the consumer. Moreover we called it the “PROSUMER”. As we define what is consumer is an individual who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale. A consumer is someone who can make the decision whether or not to purchase an item at the store, and someone who can be influenced by marketing and advertisements. But the term Prosumer it is still refers to the person who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale. But there are some of conditions that may affect or can differ in consumer and prosumer. The prosumer has more advantage comparing than to the old consumer does. As what I have said I wonder and confuse where the word prosumer came. Many statements come in my mind. Now the questions are: Where did they go? What happen to them? Who is the primary part of the chain of the economy today? Do the consumers exist today? The consumer today did not go, they only substitute or replace their name. Yes, still they exist and they are also part of the chain. The consumer today is now we called “PROSUMER”. What about prosumer? Stated from Wikipedia “Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise.” I got and searched those statement from online article. So if we talk about prosumer it is still the consumer, some economist change it for some purposes. The prosumer want to meet the standard quality to feel they need and desire for something. If it has a high quality then it will also have highest percentage of consumer-grade and vice versa. Another thing, they are consumer targeted products, at consumer prices, but containing some professional-grade functionality. And lastly a prosumer is progressive or developing gradually over the time. They have their own choice. Prosumer doesn’t depend on the available products and services offer but they have a great involvement to denote active roles on the process. It comes from the two words from producer and consumer. It’s not a new word, but it’s a word that will become the norm in the coming years. It’s already being used by companies such as Sony to describe users of video cameras. Consumer can be a capable of happening and likely to happen in the future type that can change or develop that can be included in the design and manufacture of products as a necessary, so they are given a chance to make their individual specification. Our instructor stated last meeting that the consumer today will no longer be a passive market but we are now an active market so that we can part of the creative or using the brilliant imagination process. We can customize our staff, in which everybody will satisfy of the item they bought. Now the middleman are slowly appear between maker and the buyer because of the use of e-commerce that encouraging the consumer. This sense of prosumer has been taken up by some marketing people, but remains limited in its application. The second usage describes a purchaser of technical equipment who wants to obtain goods of a better quality than consumer items, but can’t afford professional items. Here, the word is a blend of professional and consumer. Prosumers of this sort are famed for their enthusiasm for new products and their tolerance of flaws and, from the marketing point of view, have much in common with early adopters. This usage is common among those selling video equipment, digital cameras, and similar goods. In addition prosumers are now common in many fields that were once the sole province of professionals. One of the areas where the prosumer has gained a high degree of visibility is in the home improvement industry. A number of household tasks, such as the installation of ductwork, plumbing, wallpaper hanging, and installing major appliances, are now done by many homeowners. In times past, these were all functions that were considered to be the work of professionals, with only the occasional amateur attempting this sort of high profile work. The prosumer can also be associated with a number of other fields as well. Photography, interior decorating, and even the beverage industry have a number of people who have a skill or be an eligible as prosumers. As technology keeps going or nonstop to evolve, there is no something unlikely that the prosumer fact or occurrence that can be observed will continue to grow.The other things why prosumer differ from consumer. According to the online article that I have read, if we express and have conversation about the prosumer it is a person who are researching a quality product or product values, manner of functioning and the cost or the price. Some of examples are (twitter, tumblr, facebook) and consumer product reviews (such as Amazon.com). In addition the prices comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com and Thefind.com, before making a final decision or purchase. As you understand the prosumer has the power and had to do with in deciding from among range of options that give satisfaction to their money that they going to pay. In fact, within these web sites a Prosumer researches all aspects of a products performance, price and social acceptance in relative comparison to similar products within the same category. The Prosumer is searching for the highest quality product that best meets their personal needs for the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend. Based on that search criteria, the Prosumer is also willing to venture into new shopping distribution channels in order to purchase that product. As a matter of fact, a prosumer has a capability to take risk in order that he/she can undertake business venture that would lead to profit. Some article that I have read there was a writer named Tim Moore. He made some particular evaluation and measured assessments for the prosumer to give knowledge and to know other people the adjustment in operation and have the right path. The first one is “Understand we are all in the same boat”. Every business is in the similar situation. They are all struggling to catch up the social behavior of customer and have to gain profit from it. Not just to earn money but to have a good relationship towards them. Some of the customer feels like being only treated a customer. In which some of them left feel like suspicious and distrustful. Sellers are really defensive on the price of the products and services they have. While on the prosumer side, he/she would effort to search on the internet to find cheaper. The second one “SEE the goal”. To run business the only goal of it is to gain profit and growth. Right? But it is not just about it. The only way to have it is to build customer’s equity or the trust of the customer. The prosumer should have only to see and realize that there is no hidden agenda on your business. It’s not only about selling your product, but what’s important is to help and learn them from their experience. You should have the resolution of experiences that they have. And finally peak an interaction with you. Look hard on your operation you still have enough time to change and apply some of the good principles. And the last but not the least “Make the shift ASAP”. Most of the company still operates the advertisement to use media and advertise their sales. According to BTW, they earn trust, it’s not automatic, it takes time and isn’t as easy as advertising it, we must make the shift from ’selling things’ to noticing people!

The examples are:

1. Pertaining to electronics; are considered to be "on the fence" as a product of lower quality than a professional product, and higher quality (sometimes in the form of bells and whistles) than a consumer product. Some examples include: • Digital camcorders• Still cameras• HDTVsLink:( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosumer)

2. From the discussion we had last meeting one of the example is the customizing the hamburger. Putting of patties is depending to the customer. These specifications from McDonald.

3. And the ipod now offering a new product that you can engrave your name at the bask case of the Ipad. The last two examples was a concept of marketing convergence that leads the consumer to have granted their want.

Today there many technology that made the people advance of what are the things they want. Howeveer now a day we are in the new era that we called Technological era. So, the people or the human being in this global world is very ambitious and desire for some technology out there. The people wanting and needing the quality of products they want without ceasing to the growing power and they control and influence by the technology they are using. Serving prosumers is a very complex task to do; their needs cannot be defined by any location, application, time of the day, or device alone. In fact, that is what makes them prosumers. They seek to be connected and serviced no matter where they are, what they are trying to do, or when they are trying to do it. They will keep on asking solutions to everyday’s problems in a very unique but very simple way. Interfaces of the product software’s for instance might as well be very accessible both for work and their social life so that these may be easily enforced with them. All these improvements and feature upgrades satisfied the prosumers and so the products were bought. and they are not yet done improving and satisfying their clients and target clients.

Unless you were locked inside pandora's box or you are The Avatar, who was trapped in a huge chunk of ice and with a lot of help from cryogenics survived and lived again in this modern world, you would probably know that the world we are living right now has been molded to become what it is by many changes and evolutions that took place from the very day of its inception. As they will always say, the only thing that is constant in this world is change. It is proven that dinosaurs have been lording this place before, now we can't see them without the aid of modern graphics and 3D animation. Typewriters were once a very important invention, now they are considered nothing more than a collector's item (though in our country they are still of much use). Those are just typical manifestations of how this world has been affected by change. And, there is one major contributing factor in those changes: Death.

As what Steve Jobs' stated in his commencement address in Stanford University, death is life's change agent. It is a way to clear out the old to make way for the new. The same is true in the business and marketing world. The huge leaps in technological advancements in recent years has brought an influential impact on people's lifestyles. People have left the stage of being passive and have now become more aware and proactive. And thus, the death of the consumers.

Here's an excerpt of my previous post in this forum about marketing convergence that explains what the death of the consumers is all about.

"With the convergence of Information Technology and Communication Technology (or Telecommunications) the marketing and advertising fields found a precious medium to channel their goals. And that milestone proved to be the starting point of the death of the consumers. Its not that there were mass-killing of consumers like Hitler's genocides philosophy, but the death of the consumers meant the gradual restructuring and reconfiguring of how a consumer should be; how they act, how they demand, how they respond, and generally how they see things. Now how did that happen? Let us dig into that a little deeper. The venture of marketing to the internet wilderness has provided endless possiblities and ideas not just for the advertisers but also to the customers. The advertisers for example, have found a place wherein they can converge the conventional advertising platforms such as, newspaper, radio, and television to come up with a better and more effecient way of communicating their products to their customers. Moreover, in their aim to furhter discover ways of taking advantage of the usefulness and the versatility of the internet, they have come up with several innovations on their marketing process."

Now, what has happened exactly to the consumers? They have now become Prosumers. Prosumers can mean "proactive consumers", "professional consumers", or "producer consumer". But whatever you may choose from those words, they share the same thought of projecting a new look about consumers. The term Prosumer was coined in 1980 by the futurist Alvin Toffler - in his book The Third Wave - as a blend of producer and consumer. He used it to describe a possible future type of consumer who would become involved in the design and manufacture of products, so they could be made to individual specification. He argued that we would then no longer be a passive market upon which industry dumped consumer goods but a part of the creative process. Derrick de Kerckhove has called this mass customisation, in which everybody is in effect a member of a niche market, something Internet e-commerce is encouraging through cutting out the middleman between maker and buyer. This sense of prosumer has been taken up by some marketing people, but remains limited in its application. Another usage of the term describes a purchaser of technical equipment who wants to obtain goods of a better quality than consumer items, but can’t afford professional items (older terms for goods of this intermediate quality are semi-professional and industrial quality). Code ni xa sir..dili pa ni mao, wla koy gana musulat kron..Here, the word is a blend of professional and consumer. Prosumers of this sort are famed for their enthusiasm for new products and their tolerance of flaws and, from the marketing point of view, have much in common with early adopters. This usage is common among those selling video equipment, digital cameras, and similar goods (and the examples below illustrate this sense). Some manufacturers treat the SOHO (Small Office, Home Office) market as being much the same thing.

The sight of prosumers can be seen everywhere nowadays. Different shops which offer customization of their products based on the customer's likings have been enourmously sprouting. Let's say for example the popular havaianas slippers. There was one time when I happened to stroll around a mall, I saw alot of people, mostly girls, lined up in the atrium to have their slippers customized- with their chosen colors, styles, and designs. Another one is t-shirt designing. There also alot of t-shirt printing businesses in the city today. And, one of my classmates has been earning some extra cold cash out of it. Now, people are not just limited to choosing from the designs and prints of the t-shirt brands in the malls and other stores. They can now actually have the design they exactly want to be made for them.

reference: http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-pro4.htm

Last edited by michael anthony jandayan on Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:32 pm; edited 4 times in total

In our subject project management we have learned one of the convergences which is the death of the consumer and the existence of prosumers. . As far as I remember as what our facilitator said, prosumers is simply the being not satisfy of what companies produces for consumers and for being in demanding of consumers. Prosumers is defined in the internet as a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. But way back to old type or kind of consumers or customers when prosumers are not yet existed, customers just buy thing what’s available in the mall or everywhere. Like in some fast-food chains, they offer food in their establishments in what available and what they just offer. But now with the help of technologies businesses are evolved because of the demands of the consumers. They now offer customizing of food online that fits what their appetite really wants to eat. In past years it’s really quite boring and have insufficient products existed but now with the help of experts and technologies, impossible now are made possible for consumers just to satisfy their need.

The term “prosumer” originated with Alvin Toffler, who first used the term in his 1980 book The Third Wave. Toffler defined the prosumer as someone who blurs the distinction between a “consumer” and a “producer.” The term has since come to mean a variety of things, but here we define it as someone who makes little distinction between his or her home and work lives. The prosumer engages in activities belonging to either sphere, regardless of time or location.

Because of their complex lifestyle, which combines a demanding workload and an active family life, prosumers are eager adopters of Web 2.0 products and services—a convergence of process innovation, global marketplaces, and advanced technologies that fundamentally changes the way consumers buy, retailers sell, and products are brought to market. Prosumers typically embrace Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking (Facebook, MySpace), blogging, video on demand (VoD), podcasting, VoDcasting, virtual realities (Second Life, There.com), mobile communications, and other Internet-based technologies and services that allow people to stay connected whenever and wherever they desire. We refer to this as “Connected Life,” and the prosumer is an enthusiastic and early adopter of the connected lifestyle. Not all prosumers use all these technologies, of course; they access whichever technology subset best suits their individual preferences and lifestyles.

Prosumers is really existing nowadays as high technologies are growing and expanding in the world. Being prosumers are been adopt in many countries in the world because nowadays consumers are willing to pay for the cost of what they really want. Consumers are not easily get satisfied on something that they see if that is not their want because consumers now are demanding and they want to have what they really want. But there are still who satisfies on what are existing products now because they are alike of what they want and they are satisfied in its products. Just what in the studies conducted by The Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), prosumers prefer laptop computers to desktops because of their need to be mobile. They spend more of their discretionary income on entertainment than most people, and are interested in multiscreen applications. If they commute, their commutes tend to be longer, and they work at home some percentage of the time (many are full-time home workers). For me would prefer to use laptop also because of its portability, its physical design, and other features that laptop computers advantages than desktop computers. Although desktop computers and laptop computers have differed in some factors, they still have similarity in terms of functionality, but for me laptops have more advantages than desktop computers. Mobile phones evolve I think because of feedbacks they hear and read. In pass years mobile phones are just ordinary phone that can call and text particularly use for communication devices. Now mobile phones are evolve not just for communication device but also for some uses that can be enjoy be consumers in this generations. Mobile phones now have cameras, music player, radio, video players, and others. Consumers have satisfied in the phones existing but there something else I think they want in mobile phones. So touch screen phones exist and grow largely that really satisfy the wants and needs of consumers. As watches exist, it came first to many processes before it became that slim and small. Watches I think made first very big that we can’t imagined, I think it’s been made smaller and fashionable as years passes by because time is really important to people most especially business man. So they made it slimmer, smaller and fashionable that can be used for accessories at the same time because consumers want the watches portable that they can bring wherever they go that at the same time fashionable and presentable to others. In this evolution of product produce are inspired because of the needs and wants of consumers. In my observation products in the pass are been innovated and make it more productive in order to make it more useful. It’s been because of the demands of consumers to businesses that made them realized that’s it’s one good idea in businesses that can help their company or businesses increase their profits also help the industry and society to increase quality of life and change the world to better. Although many businesses are bringing all impossible things to reality to customers, there are still missing or lacking in this world that can still be identify and then innovated. Marketing strategies of businesses are also evolving because of being in of consumers in high technologies that existing now. Technologies really part of life of most people nowadays and most of them are quite dependent on it. Businesses adopt new opportunities particularly with the use of internet because people are mostly using internet every day. So businesses adopt online selling and promotion of products in internet to increase profit and help change the lifestyles of consumer in terms of buying things. Consumers find really productive type of strategies they think because consumers may able to buy what they goods far from them and make it reachable instead of spending more money for something, and it’s also too time consuming for consumers. Businesses also offers customizing on what customers really wants because as what I have mentioned earlier consumers are demanding, so businesses implemented new strategies that really fits the need and want of customers or consumers. For example in t-shirts designing, some offers free customizing or either customers brings their own design they want for the t-shirt because most customers wants their belongings or maybe gifts wants it to be their handicraft that can they call their own that are unique from others. Customers want to be unique, simple but attractive. That’s the new generations of customers, far from what customers are in the past years. Marketing strategies are evolving because of the demands of most people nowadays. We might think of why businesses are changing their strategies just to increase their profit and to attract more customers, simply because customers now or consumers are now prosumers. It’s just simply because businesses and companies are dependent on consumers because they are the source of profit. So in order to increase their profit they will change or add strategies base on the demands of the people and generations because in demands of people businesses may able to know what should be best products to be produce that might attract customers. Just like in gaming, before 3D games, online games are existed we played kiddy type games that make use fun. But as years pass by we find it boring anymore because it’s not exciting anymore. So businesses came with an idea of developing online games which are exiting than before because with the existing games now people get easily addicted because of it graphics that are realistic that gamers really wants and enjoys. They came up of developing more games nowadays because gamers get bored when it’s already not exciting. There are many games existed in the computers and online in order to not get easily uninterested because if there are many games existed there are lots of options that gamers and customers can choose on in order to still be excited. This are some example on how prosumers affect the strategies of businesses in order to give what society wants, because with the demands there are opportunities that available to businesses. This are some samples I think about prosumers that I have search in the internet that is also help life be better and make changes on the lifestyle of people that might adopt this things.The year was 2009; the month, October. News came of the end of the last specialized consumer electronics device. The GPS, which had seemed destined to continue its existence, passed on at the announcement of the Google Maps navigation feature on Android 2.0. OK, a bit exaggerated, but not by much. The current stock of smartphones is showing how many categories of consumer electronics are simply going to disappear, because virtually no one will need them — particularly when the feature set is so much richer. The vision of device “convergence,” long touted as something to desire, will suddenly bite a lot of vendors on their rear ends when they realize that it also means a tumbling opportunity to sell product and, ultimately, a shrinking consumer electronics market.People are talking about the new Motorola Droid being a GPS killer, but that’s just one category. Next up, cameras, both still and video — 5 megapixels (often more than enough, as I’ve found in my photographic work) with white balance, scene modes, and 720 x 480-pixel “DVD quality” video images. Right now too grainy, according to the PC World review, but something that can certainly be fixed.Other categories? How about MP3 players? If you look at unit product sales for Apple, it’s clear that as the iPhone increases in popularity, the iPod falls. Granted, that still leaves millions of the units going out store doors, but it suggests what will happen when a majority of handsets become smartphones with storage and user interfaces that make the devices a natural choice for downloading and playing music.Portable DVD player? I don’t know about your family, but my daughter watches video on her iPod touch. Digital recorder for taking notes? Please, not with a straight face. And with the applications available now or soon coming you, consumers will have all manner of software that will eliminate for many (though not all) the need for a netbook or laptop. But while everyone is drooling, there must be executives scared witless. As you roll first one thing and then another into a single device, you eliminate the need for additional purchases. It’s the logical extension of the march of semiconductors, with a single chip adding ever more functions. Eventually you buy only a fraction of the chips you once needed, and a lot of companies try to figure out what to do with their spare time. Now that’s going to happen on a device level, when suddenly there’s nowhere left to run for anyone.

For some people this could be unusual and looks frightening and alarming, but above all these funny ideas could be answered, later on the discussion on what really death of the consumers is all about.

For me we should first define what a consumer is about.

One that consumes, especially one that acquires goods or services for direct use or ownership rather than for resale or use in production and manufacturing. a person who acquires goods and services for his or her own personal needs.

A consumer plays a vital role in the economical system of a nation because in the absence of the effective demand that starts from them, the economy virtually collapses.

Who are Consumers?

Students are consumers and producers. So are their families.

Who is the consumer? There are in fact two types of consumers. First, there are individuals and their households. Goods and services intended for these types of consumers are known as 'final' or 'consumer' goods and services. Goods and services intended for business as an input to the production function are known as 'intermediate' or 'producers' goods. The final consumer is the focus of microeconomic theory.

And what do consumer's get from consuming goods & services? They get 'utility'. In common language, this seems to suggest 'usefulness'. However, in economics 'utility' has a much deeper and in some ways darker meaning within the fortunate calculus' of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). In simple terms, Bentham believed that all of human existence could be explained by the search for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Thus 'pleasure and pain are the sovereign rulers of the State'. He believed that pleasure and pain could be reduced to what would eventually prove to be physically measurable units called 'utile', hence 'utilitarianism'. Thus utilitarianism is radically materialistic at root.

Another name for utilitarianism, as defined by Bentham, is 'ethical hedonism'. The search for pleasure was inhibited in Bentham's scheme by the assumption that human beings carried a God-given ethic of right and wrong - essentially the Protestant work ethic. Once that ethic faded, however, we were left with only 'Me-ism': only my pleasure counts, and anything I do to increase it, no matter the pain and suffering to others, do not matter! It is ironic that what Plato feared most about Art was realized by economics:

Second, there are firms that purchase goods and services as 'inputs' to the production process of final goods and services. Goods and services purchased by firms are known as 'intermediate' or 'producer' goods and services. Taste and style play a significantly less important role. Rather it is price and technical quality that dominate the producers' goods or the 'input' or 'factor of production' marketplace. Firms as consumers are the subject of a separate part of microeconomic analysis known as 'factor market' analysis.

Normally when business people and economists talk of consumers they are talking about person as consumer, an aggregated commodity or service item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy/not-buy decision. However there is a trend in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profiles and psycho-graphic profiles of market segments, marketers have started to engage in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization.

There is increasing backlash from the public over use of the label "consumer" rather than "customer", with many finding it offensive and insulting. (Teaching people to be better shoppers instead of investigating the dangers of the marketplace)

This paper argues that the meaning of consumer society has changed over the last half century, principally through the prioritisation of choice over access. It does this through an examination of the global consumer movement and a consideration of its successes and failures. It demonstrates that through the movement's own tactics, and the defeats it suffered by opponents of regulation, its earlier emphasis on the right of consumers to enjoy basic needs has given way to a greater focus on choice. Consequently, the changing fortunes of consumer activism around the world both reflect and explain the reorientation of global consumer society over the last few decades.

What Is a Prosumer?

The term “prosumer” originated with Alvin Toffler, who first used the term in his 1980 book The Third Wave. Toffler defined the prosumer as someone who blurs the distinction between a “consumer” and a “producer.” The term has since come to mean a variety of things, but here we define it as someone who makes little distinction between his or her home and work lives. The prosumer engages in activities belonging to either sphere, regardless of time or location.

Because of their complex lifestyle, which combines a demanding workload and an active family life, prosumers are eager adopters of Web 2.0 products and services—a convergence of process innovation, global marketplaces, and advanced technologies that fundamentally changes the way consumers buy, retailers sell, and products are brought to market. Prosumers typically embrace Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking (Facebook, MySpace), blogging, video on demand (VoD), podcasting, VoDcasting, virtual realities (Second Life, There.com), mobile communications, and other Internet-based technologies and services that allow people to stay connected whenever and wherever they desire. We refer to this as “Connected Life,” and the prosumer is an enthusiastic and early adopter of the connected lifestyle. Not all prosumers use all these technologies, of course; they access whichever technology subset best suits their individual preferences and lifestyles.

The Cisco® Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) has conducted research on the prosumer segment since December 2006, studying how this group lives, works, thinks, and behaves. We found that prosumers prefer laptop computers to desktops because of their need to be mobile. They spend more of their discretionary income on entertainment than most people, and are interested in multiscreen applications. If they commute, their commutes tend to be longer, and they work at home some percentage of the time (many are full-time home workers). They view their commute as time that can be spent working, connecting to others, or being entertained. They want to connect with friends and family, and see technology as a way of balancing and helping to manage their busy lives. Prosumers value any technology that enhances and serves these needs.

Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise.

In this category of products and services professional-level features are combined with consumer-level usability and price. The concept of a prosumer is a late 20th century idea that combines some of the common characteristics of a professional and a consumer. The term is generally applied to situations where consumers are considered to have reached a level of sophistication that the professional-consumer can effectively dictate the perimeters for the production of goods and services in terms of quality and structure. The difference between the garden variety consumer and the prosumer is that the latter typically possesses such a strong working knowledge with the product that he or she can successfully determine and perhaps even design a better product offering.

Prosumers are now common in many fields that were once the sole province of professionals. One of the areas where the prosumer has gained a high degree of visibility is in the home improvement industry. A number of household tasks, such as the installation of ductwork, plumbing, wallpaper hanging, and installing major appliances, are now done by many homeowners. In times past, these were all functions that were considered to be the work of professionals, with only the occasional amateur attempting this sort of high profile work.

Cooking is another area where amateurs have become more proficient. As a result, prosumers now bridge the gap between people who prepare simple meals for the household and persons who are trained as professional chefs. One of the avenues that allow amateurs to expand the level of culinary education is cable television. Since the medium became widely available in the late 1970’s, many people have become exposed to the preparation of cuisine that was usually available only in upscale restaurants. The result has been the creation of a large audience of prosumer enthusiasts that delight in expanding their culinary skills, without necessarily planning on making a living in the industry.

The combination of affordable computer technology and the Internet have also made it possible for the prosumer to assume a place in the world of publishing. Thanks to software programs and high quality printing materials and equipment, the prosumer can now produce hard copy and electronic magazines on a favorite hobby or interest. Desktop publishing also allows these highly skilled amateurs to produce high quality greeting cards, promotional brochures, and a wide range of published material. Even fledgling writers can be classified as prosumers, simply by using current technology to product an electronic book for distribution.

The prosumer can also be associated with a number of other fields as well. Photography, interior decorating, and even the beverage industry have a number of people who qualify as prosumers. As technology continues to evolve, there is no doubt that the prosumer phenomenon will continue to grow.

From consumers to prosumers

In simplest terms, people have moved from being CONsumers to PROsumers with far more influence than ever before.

The term “prosumer” isn’t a new one. It’s been around the marketing world for years, but in today’s world of the social web, it has taken on a new importance that business leaders and marketers can’t ignore.

The term “prosumer” has transformed from meaning “professional consumer” to meaning “product and brand advocate.” Rather than simply “consuming” products, people are becoming the voices of those products and significantly impacting the success or failure of companies, products, and brands, particularly through their involvement on the social web.

No longer are businesses completely in control of their products, brands and messages. Today, consumers are in control. The leaders of this shift are the members of the social web — bloggers, microbloggers, forum posters, social networking participants, and so on, who spread messages, influence people around the world, and drive demand.

Prosumers are the online influencers that business leaders and marketers must not just identify but also acknowledge, respect and develop relationships with in order for their products and brands to thrive.

The bottom line to connect with prosumers and to get them talking about and advocating you, your brand, products and business is to deliver content that adds value to their experiences with your brand online. Then, don’t be afraid to let them take control and spread your messages. That’s where the power of the social web and online influencers to drive word-of-mouth marketing farther than ever comes into the picture, and that’s the ultimate goal for business leaders and marketers.

One of the topics that we have discus that caught my interest is Marketing Convergence. We learned a lot from this topic that could help us as the future technopreneurs. There are many ways of how marketing convergence take place in every business nowadays and without a doubt “the death of the consumers” are the outcome of those convergence.

The difference between a consumer and a prosumer. According to Tim Moore in wordpress ,by definition, Consumer is: “One that consumes, one that acquires goods or services for direct use or ownership” or put another way, “A heterotrophic organism that ingests other organisms or organic matter in a food chain.” It’s all about the sale, who cares about the person. Ever been on the other end of that? In consumer, there are different types and categories of consumer in different types of businesses. There are no general type consumers and there are many factors on the basis of consumers can be classified. A few of the attributes are income groups such as low consumer income, average consumer income and high consumer income. Other attributes includes their behaviors, others demographics, geographic, and benefits. When we say sort out according to their behavior, the group of customers and includes details about frequency of purchase, loyalty to particular products or brands and so on. I will define the behavior, demographics, geographic and benefit according to http://www.bized.co.uk. Those for are known as marketing characteristics. Demographics, this will include details about age, occupation, educational background, income, gender and family size. Geographic, include details about where people live - not just the region but might include post code groups, whether it is a rural or urban area, whether it is an estate, private housing, and so on. Lastly is behavior, why do users use a particular product or brand as opposed to any other? What common characteristics are there of people who use particular brands or products? For example, the magazines 'Total Guitar' and 'Guitar Techniques' are both magazines aimed at people who have an interest in guitars and playing guitars but cater for very different markets

A Prosumer is: “One who is converse to the consumer, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. Consumer is what we call the form consumer, “basic” because you just buy what is on display or the displayed items. Prosumer is the advance type of consumer because they are the one who makes the display item according to their needs. Consumers are critical, they are changing and do have choices. Consumers cannot get poor services anywhere. Life is demanding, anxiety is growing in our neighbors lives, procrastination is up 40%, and rage and insolence are increasing across the board amongst ‘service’ providers.

Market is a relationship between company and consumers. In this kind of relationship the company will sell their product in the market according to what they designed it for and the consumer will just buy the product or service that has been put on the market without any reaction. In this type of connection the consumers are passive. In marketing convergence there is now a triangle connection between the company, the technology and the consumer. Marketing convergence arises because of the complex lifestyle and unsatisfied desire of the consumers to have new trend of technology. These desires are the main cause of new developments and evolution. The technology helps the company to discover new avenues of opportunities. With the aid of technology the company can develop their skills and competencies faraway from the previous ones. Because of convergence the consumer now can demand on what product or service they need, it means that the consumers now dictates the company on what products or services put up for sale. Convergence causes the death of the consumers. “Death” sounds creepy right! This “death” is not what you think it is that there are bloodshed and many lives were wasted but this death makes the old attitude of the consumers such as being passive are now wipe away and they are now risen into an active consumer called as “Prosumers”. Prosumers identifies a modern consumer who has changed their approach to the traditional methods and habits of purchasing products. Prosumers now are searching for a product value, performance and price of the product or services through technology such as internet. The prosumers can take part on the production process more than ever in specifying designing requirements, in other words the prosoumer can customized the service or product that they want.People are becoming the voices of those products that the company produces and do have a major impact on the success or failure of the companies, products and brands. The business has no longer control of their products because the consumers or the “prosumers” now are in control.

I have also heard that there are two types of foolish consumer the first one is he ask so many question about the product and later on decide not to buy and the other one is he only ask question once then he decided to buy. How this made a consumer does looks like a fool? The first one, the consumer ask so many questions what is this, how does it work, how much this, what is this for…etc. but at the end of the conversation between him and the sales staff he will come to a decision that he will be back later, what a waste of time between him and the trader . This would be sign that the product that the seller presented does not satisfies or convinced the consumer. The other foolish consumer is that he only asks once and after that he buys the product. In this case the consumer is very easy to deceive and most of these types of consumers are the not conversant individuals, they easily choose and buy it without any hesitation just because the seller told them that it suits you well or it is made of a high quality material …etc.

Examples1. Is the Apple Store. They are the perfect example of very company from top to bottom. They see everyone that comes into in their door as a Prosumer. They are there to help you, no stress, as you walk around, you become aware of everything works and is unlocked, and you are feeling free. If you need a genius just go to the genius bar and get excellent service form the people who want to help you and get it right for the first time.2. Online manga rental. Manga is a Japanese comic. Many of us do not have the money to by mangas and most of us know that mangas are costly. There are now websites who offer rentals of different genre of manga. 3. The McDonalds online service and delivery.Let’s face it; people today are glued to their computers. Whether you are a student finishes a term paper or an employee preparing a monthly report, most of the day is spent in front of a monitor while furiously punching keys and clicking the mouse. Often times, in between that term paper or that report, hunger strikes. We stop for a moment to think of the fastest and most convenient way to get great tasting food without any hassle. McDonald’s provides the solution by offering new ways for utmost customer convenience. McDonald’s has recently developed a new way to access its 24/7 Mcdelivery through the power of the internet. Now customers can have delicious, quality food at affordable prices with only a few clicks, anytime of the day. Ordering at McDonald’s Delivery Online is so easy and convenient. Visit the website at www.mcdelivery.com.ph and click on a menu category to select your order. Choose from a wide selection of McDonald’s burgers or chicken, grab & go breakfast, desserts and new offers; whatever you are in the mood for! Click on your selected food item and drag your order to the food tray. A pop-up box will appear for meal options – beverage preference, meal quantity and upgrade selections. Once this has been completed, check your ordered food and your total bill will be computed for you instantly. Finally, after completing delivery information, click the button “Ok, I’m Done,” and a customer service representative will give you a call to confirm to call your order. There you have it. McDonald does will deliver your favorite meals right at your doorstep, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

McDonalds develop another way to make it more convenient to the prosumers to order anytime and anywhere. You can also customize your meal according to what your taste buds crave.

4. Wikipedia or Firefox, they exist because of the communicational and informational demands of the prosumers. Wikipedia consists of information that is contributed by the prosumers and used by the prosumers. Same as in Firefox.

5. Do it your own. There are now a lot of websites such Converse and Nike that let their prosumer design or customized their shows according to their likings and send it back to the site and make an order. Prosumers do like because when the item arrives they are satisfied because it is exactly what they want. This kind of business do have a positive impact on the prosumers and the business because it creat communication between them. The business will know what the prosumers nowadays like and made it possible by producing those products.6. The consumers nowadays do not want too many advertisements in television. Consumers are now using numerous methods to draw away most advertizing in their daily life. This trend is largely due to new technologies that have become widely available to consumer markets. Because of this there are now cable TV companies providers that offers commercial-free subscription. There are now also TiVO and other digital video recorders that allows the consumers to skip through commercials.

Nowadays many consumers are now becoming prosumers and understanding them is one of the important factors to the success of your business. Here are just a few helpful suggestions from the site of Tim Moore, to see things from the Prosumer’s point of view that may help us twist our operation and get us on the right path without having to do a lot of profound lifting:

1) Understand we are all in the same boat – every business is in a similar situation. They are all struggling trying to catch up to the social behavior shift which has left there showrooms empty. Face it, we have created a monster. Our poor customers are left to fend for themselves, our culture of treating them like customers (‘who’s next in line? hurry up..’) has left them feeling suspicious, distrustful, with no inherent loyalty, and only focused on price and convenience, and feel defensive, suspicious and that we are the adversary as soon as they walk into our business. I do. That means whatever your price is, I’m looking on the web to find it cheaper. Result? – we all lose, business profits dwindle in our community, jobs lost. We have to understand it is what it is, and IT doesn’t work anymore. We have to lift our heads out of our computers and look around, realize the situation, and do something about it.2) Percieve the goals – Our goal is simple, sustainable profits and growth right? The only way, let me repeat that, the ONLY way for that to happen in your business in today’s climate is to build customer equity = trust, confidence in us, we care, NO hype, NO infomercial techniques, those are dead. Our customers, Prosumers, need to realize and see manifested in our business model that we don’t have a hidden agenda, help them to learn from their experience with us that they can trust us. And finally, they should pick up from their interaction with us that when they deal with us, it’s not about ’selling them something’, it about their experience and making it the most enjoyable that we can. (i.e.; Apple Store) . Look at your operation and SEE where you can adjust and apply some of these principles. Just be patient and look hard they are just there.3) Make the shift at the earliest time or as soon as possible – Most businesses still operate in the adversarial ‘consumer’ arena and use traditional media to advertize their ’sales’ and ’sales’, compelling commercial lines. This does not work any more – in fact, most companies that remain in the status quo are finding they are paying a “trust tax”, a transaction costs which can be up to 70% of the item, which destroys profit margin and will force companies into extinction if they remain unchanged in their methods. We must make the shift from ’selling things’ to noticing people! We need to build a desire with our Prosumers, cultivate relationships, create a sense of comfortable community for them. If you have been reading my articles over the years, you will recall my simple formula: Thoughts + Feelings = Actions. Now, this is a two edged sword, but one that if used right, and all the focus is on the Prosumer’s experience when we get an opportunity, that we are going to dazzle them with service, since we are all human, using my formula will create – Trust + Desire = Purchase, and continued experience results in loyalty and brand (“your brand”) advocacy.

The shifting of paradigm did change the number of works, it lessen the chores that we often do everyday, it also change the way how services and products produces depending to the prosumers. The “Consumer” attitude is now dead and we are now bring back to life as a Prosumer or professional consumer with up-to-date knowledge that could help us in buying quality products or services. Like Guy Kawasaki said let the thousand flowers bloom and prosumers are just like that, we give ideas to the company and business on what service or product should they provide.

Like what we have discussed one time in our lectures, consumers are dead and prosumers are born. The consumers were brutally murdered by the prosumers. Not really, the term “consumers” was just rightfully replaced by the term “prosumers”. I guess not many of us knows that, though. I was even wondering the “DEATH OF THE CONSUMERS” part in our lecture. The thought of “Kinsa’y nagpatay?” and “Unsa man ni? Lamayan na lang nato ni sila?” came to my mind. Well, it really puzzled me why our instructor said those things.Anyways, the definition of consumers is that they just buy things on what is available. They won’t ask for more. Consumers just wait and wait until the product they wanted would be available. In situations like they wanted a shirt which they like the design but hates the color, well... they can’t do anything. It is either take it or leave it. They have their own demands but they can’t and they don’t do anything about it.That is what most of us here. Yes... We do have hard-headed entrepreneurs who control us and force us on what we would like to buy. Nah... I don’t really know much about that because I don’t buy things that much. I am not really a greedy person unless if it is food, and I think we call it “gluttony”. But who cares? Now, for a long time, businessmen are controlling our market. They dictate us on what we buy and what we will want to buy. Until now, most of them are still like that. I guess that’s why our market is still like this. It’s kinda’ boring for me. They even make sales with the original prices doubled before the sale. They also stay on the same trend as the other. Or should I say, they got the same trends. One store sells this, the others also sell the same item with the price different but looks the same. I guess almost everyone noticed that because I have noticed it. I don’t really do shopping that much. A once a year shopping would be a miracle already. I experienced one at Tutuban whre there are lots of shoes with the same design in different stores at different prices. It was really funny because when you asked for a price in the same store at a different clerk or what ever we can call them, they tend to sell it at a different price. Geez! They also got the same way of talking, “Ano’ng sa atin, tropa?”. Hahaha! What’s with those guys? They also look scary. Woah...Well... The shopping scenario, the usual one, is that we go to a shop, look for something we might like, look at its price, and buy it if affordable. It is also optional if you want to give it back to them. Now, if you won’t be able to seewhat you are looking for, you might as well go to another store and get back to the process of “consumering”. Hehehe. It only means that most of the time they won’t get the very thing they wanted to buy.I think being a consumer is really tiresome because you’ll sometimes regret going to a shopping place finding not all the things you wanted to. I have also experienced situations like that sometimes when I was looking for a birthday gift to a friend of mine. I think I went to two to three malls just to look for a good gift for her. Well, yeah. That’s exhausting and cost a lot of money for the fares and also for some food stops. Hehehe. Of course, like what I have said, it was tiring. It just made me hungry going to a junk place. I guess that was a part of their marketing strategy for customers like me. They would tend to tire me up looking for something until I get hungry but still haven’t found what I was looking for. Sometimes, it also happens that I would find a good one but I can’t afford it... poor me.There are also times that consumers sees something good for their eyes but there is a flaw on that product. It’s not really a flaw, it is just something pr a part of that product that they won’t need or they don’t want. For example, you found a cute pillow cover or whatever we call it. It comes up with the pillow itself but you don’t like it’s quality. Well, if you want to buy that pillow cover, you need to buy the whole pillow. You will need to pay the whole price to buy it, of course. In that situation, you could either buy the whole thing and throw the base of the pillow or whatever we call it and use the pillow cover or don’t buy the thing. The decision is yours, that’s not part of my story anymore. I have experienced this similar situation before. Actually, I experience it often times. But when I say often times in shopping, it is not really that often as yours, normally. I don’t really buy that much like what I was saying earlier. And when I go “shopping”, it would mostly involve just eating like my experience in SM Mall of Asia. I was really stuffed that time because earlier that morning we went to Red Ribbon and I bought an extra palabok. After we that we went to MMDA for not so long time and we went straight to SM Mall of Asia. We first, ate at Taste Asia. Well, I was still full that time but they want me to eat already... oh c’mon. I got no choice but to eat. The opportunity is vital. Hehehe. Anyways, I went to look for the department store to buy some toys for the kids. I kinda’ roam the whole gigantic mall just to go to the department store which is at the opposite side of the mall where I started to search for it. Good thing I was able to buy the things I wanted. I also got to find a Burger King food chain. The prices where good enough but my problem is that I got to buy the whole set. A set consists of the burger of your choice, a french fries, and a softdrink. Of course, I am still full but I wanted to taste the Burger King’s burger since we don’t have that in Davao. So I decided to buy, anyways. I don’t know what to do with the drinks because I am not really fond of it so I just gave it to others. I ate the french fries even if I was full. Hehehe. The burger was reserved to be eaten at the airplane. And another burger is reserved for my brother. So, there... They forced me to buy the whole set. Where is my freedom? I also got a prior experience with that here in Davao and it still involves burger. This time or should I say, those times because it happened many times, it is with the Space Burger. Their burgers are at the same level as the ones at Burger King’s. In other words, they are both delicious. So... about my experience, I wanted to buy that one-third pound burger. It would always involve with some onion rings. Well, of course, I hate onions. I won’t be able to eat the burger with the onion rings in it, there’s no way I would eat it with the onion rings. The solution is to ask the clerk to remove or not to put onion rings in it. So, of course, she would remove or won’t include the onion rings. Well, it is good except for the fact that I still need to pay for the onion rings... I’m still wondering why I really hate onions and garlics up to this day. The only way I am eating garlic is when I eat fried peanuts or whatever it is really called in English. I guess I can become a prosumer because of garlics and onions. Hehehe.So, I guess that is what I have understood with the consumer part. And if we say “DEATH OF THE CONSUMERS”, I guess we are all already dead by now. Good thing it wasn’t that literal. If it was, Philippines would be a massive graveyard.Anyways, I guess I should be discussing the characteristics of a prosumer. But I’m really wondering why they are called prosumer? It sounds like prostitue plus consumer... but I guess it is far like that. Hehehe. Who cares about the meaning, anyways? (Well, my classmate said it was proactive consumer.) They killed the consumers. If it was Masked Rider, I mean, Guy Kawasaki defines them, I think he can say they are revolutionaries. Well, these brand new breed of consumers eats the product and tears the store apart. Yeah, they also killed its customers which are prior to them called consumers. But I’m just kidding. They really are good guys. And yet I told another lie.OK... Seriously. These brand new breed of consumers are the most demanding kind of consumers. They would buy what they want, where they want and how they want it to be as long as they can pay for it. Prosumers are not and won’t be dictated by the businessmen when it comes to buying product. They have thicker face than the businessmen. Businessmen should follow the demands of these prosumers or they would lose customers. When they want their phones to have antennae on it, you better give it. Don’t ask them why or something. I guess things would be better left unknown. Hehehe. Unlike the generation of the consumers, the market now is not really in control; except for the pricing, of course. Businessmen just have to believe that the customers are always right and there is now a new fool. The fool that had to please the customer. Well, the generation have changed and we should make them spoiled brats. Many businesses are now adapting the prosumer’s law or the prosumer’s way of shopping. Before, I just see those stores that designs the mobile phones. they just design, they don’t sell the handset itself. But maybe they do sometimes... I’m confusing. I guess they were the first ones that adapted the prosumer thingy in our city that I have seen. Outside the city... Hey? I don’t really get of the city, how should I know? Oh... right, the internet. I have seen this sight called Alienware. They sell customized computers and laptop. You are actually the one to decide what part of the laptop or PC you want to put. But the problem I have encountered is that it is really expensive. I guess part of the generation of prosumers is that things get really expensive. Another prosumer thing are the luxury cars. You normally can’t buy a predefined luxury car. Luxury cars are customized from an original design. Ferrari is a luxury car and all their cars are unique. No two cars should be the same. well, it is just a guess. I mean, how should I know? I don’t have a Ferrari. The only way I can drive one is through video games. A consumer might one day meet with the same shirt. I know, it would be shameful to see another person with the same shirt. It is like facing a mirror. While prosumers won’t be seeing the same thing to others. I guess so. So, I guess we can say, in the generation of prosumers, almost all products are the same. My burger would be different from yours. If it was genetics, one might want to create a baby with thousand arms. But I won’t be telling how it would look like. I think it would be disgusting. So I guess they would just make the baby stronger and much resistant. I guess human is some kinda’ product of prosuming but we’re not bought or something like that. We’re just unique to each other. Even a clone is still unique. Who knows? Hehehe. Anyways, prosumers are more flexible in the internet because may things are customizable in the internet. Rich people can buy an Alienware laptop in the internet. You can order a customizable burger in the internet. You might be able to see what you want to buy in the internet. I guess so. Internet provides many solutions to prosumer’s market. Marketing convergence is a good answer for prosumer’s demands. Like what I have said before, a lot of marketing convergence happens in the internet. So, yeah. marketing convergence helps the prosumers. It is an associative relationship. This is not discrete mathematics. Hehehe.Anyways, I’m now thinking what am I on those two. Honestly, I am not a demanding kind of person. I just eat what I want to eat, you know? In times like I can’t buy something I wanted, I just buy the materials I would need. For example, the gift I bought for my friend. It wasn’t just a plane Garfield thing. I put a hanger or whatever we can call it. You know, the thing that makes something to be like a key chain? I forgot what we call it. Anyways, the thing is that I customized it my own. It wasn’t just a silly hanging plain thing anymore. Nah... It might still be boring for a hanging thingy, though. My friend likes Garfield, anyways. I guess it is cool enough.Another one is the creation of my fisherman’s hat. It started from a drawing before. I suddenly think, “Hey? Why shouldn’t I make one?” So there, I looked for materials. Since I am not really capable of making the base of a fisherman’s hat that time, I just bought a plane one. Later, I bought a meter of gold or sometimes they call it yellow and a green roll of cloth. I don’t have any experience of making a hat so it was kinda’ hard for me at start. Luckily, I’m cool enough. Hehehe. Others don’t think so. I was able to manage to prepare the cloth to be bound with the hat. The fisherman’s hat was originally black and now it is dark green. And it has golden linings or I guess we can call it yellow linings. Hehehe. And another one was my ragged doll. The things I have used for that were all from our house’s items. The base was a doll from Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a cute doll. The doll was a skeleton, just like in the movie. You know, when the pirate is hit by the moon light. Just like that. Cute right? Hehehe. Another part is the Tiger’s coat from a toy from Pooh. That was from McDonald’s, Canada. My aunt is a manager in one chain. Yay! We normally get toys like that. There was also a hanger thing like what I have mentioned before. yeah, we got a lot of those before. Those were from the toys that are also part of the package from my aunt at Canada. Cool... And some yarns and threads that can be found at local department stores near you. The yard was gold. I made it in to the pirate’s blond hair. I put the hanger thingy on its head. I put a scar-like thing in his eyes. And a diaper in his waist. The tiger coat... well... I made him wear the tiger coat. The doll really looked weird! Sad thing is that I lost the doll during a heavy rain... Really sad. I call that doll “Estactoy”, named after a weird guy from high school.I also once made my own shirt design. The funny thing was that I didn’t know that there was a specific kind of paint for clothes. Hahaha! That was really ironic. I didn’t continue making it anyways.So, it implies that I am a different kind of consumer. I don’t know if I can be defined as consumer or prosumer. I am a self-customizer consumer. What can we call to myself? I think I am at the same type of the cosplayers. Cosplayers make their own costumes from different materials. The only thing they buy are the wigs. So, about the “DEATH OF CONSUMERS”, they did die literally. They just evolved. I don’t know why it was entitled something like that... who cares, anyways? The consumers evolved in to prosumers where they are now actually so demanding and they reshaped the trends. Any color is not just black, anymore. What you want is what you get. The marketing strategy or pattern is now new. Internet also killed the consumers because it supports the prosumers. And I got nothing else to say.

During the time that marketing convergence occur in the industry, there are also another part of the industry evolve and was known in another identity and that was the consumers. Industry is composed of three different parts; these are the company, the technology and the consumers. Each of this part is performing a different task however they have a common goal and that is to alter the old marketing approach. The old marketing approach became a way for the technopreneurs to arrive in a new brilliant idea and that is to kill the old and raise a new. The old that is described here is the consumers. At this moment it will no longer called a consumer but instead a prosumer. We ask why it became like that, we will know that on the further discussion and we will understand why a consumer became a prosumer. A Prosumer is someone who gives back to the community and is proactive in their recovery! (PROfessional conSUMER) A person who is very knowledgeable about a subject and likes to purchase high-quality equipment. For example, many digital cameras fall into the prosumer category. They offer higher quality and more advanced features than the lower-end consumer variety, but still do not possess all the features of the most professional units on the market. A Prosumer is a consumer who purchases your group deal and then actively tells others. eWinWin's Social Buying Platform gives buyers an incentive to do just that. With our patented Social Buying Platform, as more people buy, the price goes down for everyone. By sharing your deals with their family and friends, buyers can save even more.

As the social web has grown and tools like Twitter, blogs, Facebook and YouTube have allowed communications to flow faster and farther than ever before — inevitably causing the world to shrink and real-time to be the expectation — people have changed. Those changes affect most aspects of our daily lives, including our roles as individuals with buying power, and that’s a shift that businesses and their employees need to understand if they want to stay profitable in the future.In simplest terms, people have moved from being CONsumers to PROsumers with far more influence than ever before.The term “prosumer” isn’t a new one. It’s been around the marketing world for years, but in today’s world of the social web, it has taken on a new importance that business leaders and marketers can’t ignore.

The term “prosumer” has transformed from meaning “professional consumer” to meaning “product and brand advocate.” Rather than simply “consuming” products, people are becoming the voices of those products and significantly impacting the success or failure of companies, products, and brands, particularly through their involvement on the social web.No longer are businesses completely in control of their products, brands and messages. Today, consumers are in control. The leaders of this shift are the members of the social web — bloggers, microbloggers, forum posters, social networking participants, and so on, who spread messages, influence people around the world, and drive demand.Prosumers are the online influencers that business leaders and marketers must not just identify but also acknowledge, respect and develop relationships with in order for their products and brands to thrive.

The high level steps to leveraging the power of prosumers are as follows:1. Identify the key online influencers for your product, brand, business or industry (i.e., the prosumers).2. Acknowledge those people (e.g., send product samples, ask opinions, etc.).3. Join the online conversation where those people already spend time.4. Develop relationships with those people by interacting with them, providing useful information, and being accessible and human.5. Leverage the opportunities of the social web by creating your own branded destinations such as a blog, YouTube channel, Twitter profile, Facebook group or fan page, LinkedIn group, podcast, etc.

The bottom line to connect with prosumers and to get them talking about and advocating you, your brand, products and business is to deliver content that adds value to their experiences with your brand online. Then, don’t be afraid to let them take control and spread your messages. That’s where the power of the social web and online influencers to drive word-of-mouth marketing farther than ever comes into the picture, and that’s the ultimate goal for business leaders and marketers.As we all know that in the market, a consumer is always present. Obviously, we cannot consider it as a market without the presence of this one. As defined in the Webster dictionary, a consumer is a person who uses goods and services. In the other words, they are the end user. Based on the definition, it is very clear that the goods and services produce by the producer is useless if the consumers will not take part of it. In the past years, many of the consumers are enjoying the goods and services offered to them. However, they do not have the freedom to demand for what they need and what they want. All are just contented and bring into play with the products feed to them by the producers. But when the markets shift their paradigm in business, as a part also of their marketing strategy, they open to allow the consumers to demand for what they want to. They shift their paradigm through establishing much better marketing strategies and they make use of the technology. The technology helps them to revolutionize their techniques in business. To introduce their products and services to the people, they grab the opportunity that the internet is capable to do. They do online servicing and advertising and also they promote their products through the internet.

Our ancestors are very common about the old market. They have been through this kind of industry for how many years and that is why we can consider them as consumers. The consumers in the past many years are describe as those who are dependent to everything that the market may offer to them. They don’t have the freedom to demand. They have difficulties to be more familiar with the products and most especially they cannot ask for more but to depend only in the offers of the market. To cite an example of this is when you want to drink a coffee, you need to have a coffee, sugar and cream. You cannot prepare for a coffee without these ingredients and see it is very hassle for us. The consumer may take enough time and spend more money just to prepare this drink. However, consumers were already dead and this is what we call the death of consumers. The death of consumers is the end of the suffering of the people. They will no longer experience the old ways instead, they will be experiencing the short cut to get and to do what they want. They will no longer put individually the ingredients of the coffee because the market was already produced a three in one coffee where you can poured it directly into a hot water. In a minute you have already your instant coffee. This is only one of the examples that prove that the market is already moving. Now that there is a death of the consumers, a new breed of consumers exists. This new breed of consumers is known as the “PROSUMERS”. The people in the present year were considered as prosumers. They are demanding and marketing savvy. They are also proactive and empowered consumer. Compare to our ancestors, they are all passive meaning go with the flow and satisfied with what is present in the market. Our market today is doing great in terms of their performance; they are fast moving and constantly updating to the changes in the technology and quickly responding to the demands of the people. We are now moving form media to multi media. It tells us the way of using of the technology to become more active in the market. Moving from passive to participative media, if in the previous years is we are all sleeping and unaware of the happenings around us, now we are all awake to change the old and to engage in the new paradigm in business world. Moving from standard messaging to infotainment which tells us that those who have the information has the power. It most likely refers to us student; we have a great opportunity in the world of business because we have lots of information and knowledge especially in technology. We are the most prone to know about these things and we are given a chance to explore in the internet and apply the things that was stored in us. However, the internet doesn’t change everything. The number of users of the internet is increasing and base on the statistics, 175 million people in the United States are having the access to the internet. Imagine how its great influence affects the lives of the people. It provides interaction between consumers and this is the work of marketing technology. Another change is the mass marketing to buzz permission marketing, broadcasting to narrowcasting. Many are already aware of a certain products or services offered by a business. It covers a wide scope of places all over the world. The last thing is fragmented to connected society. This is also the existence of networking where a business uses the technique of pyramiding to gain more distributors and also income. When we say fragmented, there is n unity in the society where each is minding only about their selves. We can say that the death of the consumers gives us chances to take a big leap towards the promotion of products and services. The death of the consumers provides us a privilege to choose and to customize. Customerization, this means the involvement now of customers that they can participate in generating ideas to create product. However, to reach a high degree of customization, consumers would have to take part in the production process especially in specifying design requirements. In a sense, this is merely an extension or broadening of the kind of relationship that many affluent clients have had with professionals like architects for many decades. A customer knows best! MCDO is one of the fast food chains that are now applying the marketing technology. They have made a website that is convenient for their customers where they are free to order and to customize their orders. They are given a privilege to choose whatever their customers want. If their customers want to order a burger with various ingredients then they are free as long as they are able to pay the cost of their orders. Marketing technology also offers a convenient channels, I want to call, click or visit and competitive value where you can demand for more for your money. Competitive, the effectiveness and competitiveness of the products and services The power of technology creates new possibilities for consumers and companies. The challenge in marketing technology is sorting through the interactions. Many companies are spending so much more in advertising. These are the powerful realities in marketing. The technology opens the gate for the people to make use of the internet that would definitely shape the consumers.Together with the death of the consumer is the death also of the old ways. People are now living with a full privilege and convenience. Day by day is a new opportunity for them to experience the new life in the world of technology. Mostly of the products are now instant. Instantly provided by the market and instantly enjoyed by the consumers. There is really a big change in the market and because of this change life became easy for us.

Why death of consumers? Does this mean that there is no more market? Do we exist? If we don’t exist then who does? A lot of questions will rise up on this “Death of consumers” phrase. To some people who does not have any idea of what this phrase means they will surely say that the one who threw the phrase is somewhat insane, again because they don’t have any idea what this really means. To give them idea on what this phrase means I will give a brief discussion which will be followed up by some facts from the internet.

So death of consumers means that we are no longer passive consumers. We no longer wait for the market to tell us what we should buy; we are now the ones who dictate what we should buy. We are now the new generation of consumers. We are in the new era of marketing. Consumers now are dead and the prosumer now reign. What is prosumer? Prosumers are the new term for the consumers the difference between these twois the passivity and the activeness of the consumers. Active consumers are the prosumers. They dictate; they do not wait. So to understand more of what is this prosumer thing I have surfed at the internet this information. But before we go deeper on the prosumer side let us first dig the consumers thought.

Consumers play a vital role in the economical system of a nation because in the absence of the effective demand that emanates from them, the economy virtually collapses. Mahatma Gandhi said a customer is the most important visitor in our premises. He is not dependent on us, we are on him. He is not an interruption to our work; he is the purpose of it.

Typically when business people and economists talk of consumers they are talking about person as consumer, an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy/not-buy decision. However there is a trend in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profiles and psycho-graphic profiles of market segments, marketers have started to engage in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization.There is increasing backlash from the public over use of the label "consumer" rather than "customer", with many finding it offensive and derogatory.

So in the first phrase we those consumers is the life of the economy, without them the economy will collapse or worse than that it would die. If that is the fact then the phrase “Death of the consumers” will certainly kill the economy. To clear things up and for more knowledge let us dig deeper on what is the role of prosumers.

Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise.

Producer and consumerMarshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt suggested in their 1972 book Take Today, (p. 4) that with electric technology, the consumer would become a producer. In the 1980 book, The Third Wave, futurologist Alvin Toffler coined the term "prosumer" when he predicted that the role of producers and consumers would begin to blur and merge (even though he described it in his book Future Shock from 1970). Toffler envisioned a highly saturated marketplace as mass production of standardized products began to satisfy basic consumer demands. To continue growing profit, businesses would initiate a process of mass customization, that is the mass production of highly customized products.

However, to reach a high degree of customization, consumers would have to take part in the production process especially in specifying design requirements. In a sense, this is merely an extension or broadening of the kind of relationship that many affluent clients have had with professionals like architects for many decades.Toffler has extended these and many other ideas well into the 21st-century. Along with recently published works such as Revolutionary Wealth (2006), we can recognize and assess both the concept and fact of the prosumer as it is seen and felt on a worldwide scale. That these concepts are having global impact and reach, however, can be measured in part by noting in particular, Toffler's popularity in China. Discussing some of these issues with Newt Gingrich on C-Span's After Words program in June 2006, Toffler mentioned that The Third Wave is the second ranked bestseller of all time in China, just behind a work by Mao Zedong.[1]Don Tapscott more fully elaborated on the concept in his 1995 book The Digital Economy calling it "Prosumption."However, mass customization has not taken place in most areas of the economy. Most consumption continues to be passive as critics of television, recorded music, and fast food would argue. Indeed, people are generally uninterested in going to the effort of customizing the myriad products that comprise modern consumer culture. In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, Barry Schwartz argues that diminishing returns from a confusing abundance of consumer choice is producing stress and dissatisfaction.3 Still, one key area of high-customization is taking place: highly involved hobbyists.

Professional consumerWith customization focused on leisure pursuits, Toffler's initial combination has been largely supplanted by a second pair of blurring roles: that of the professional and consumer. In particular, hobbyists have become ever-more demanding in the pursuits of their hobbies, often rising above the level of dilettante (an amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest) to the point of commanding skills equal to that of professionals. Key examples of such hobbies are:• home improvement as illustrated by the rise of hardware stores such as Home Depot• cooking as illustrated by creation of entirely new cable television channels entirely dedicated to the culinary arts such as The Food Channel or Food Network• photography as illustrated by still cameras and camcorders that, often, are on a par with equipment used by professionals

This professional slant of the prosumer term is most common in photography which is a field that highlights prosumer trends. Access to professional-level equipment and skills is made possible by combination of factors such as:• high disposable incomes by some sectors of the population• increased leisure time, again, for some sectors of the population• continuously falling prices of ever more advanced products (especially electronics)• media geared towards amateurs and hobbyists: o beginning in the 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing, a growing profusion of magazines to satisfy specialized interestso beginning in the mid-1990s with the advent of the Internet, an even wider range of websites with online forums to pool experience• Pertaining to electronics; are considered to be "on the fence" as a product of lower quality than a professional product, and higher quality (sometimes in the form of bells and whistles) than a consumer product. Some examples include: o Digital camcorderso Still cameraso HDTVs

Non-corporate producer and consumerYet a third meaning or usage of prosumer is springing up, especially among some activist groups. That is, the producer and consumer roles are being combined so as to exclude (or at least diminish) the role of the corporate producer; thus, rather than generating higher corporate profits from value-added products, producers would, at best, be reduced to supplying lower-profit commodity inputs. Indeed, the more consumer-oriented prosumer spin is irrelevant to many people with diminished disposable income caused by various economic trends such as globalization, automation, and wealth concentration. Identifiable trends and movements outside of the mainstream economy that have adopted prosumer terminology and techniques include:• a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach as a means of economic self-sufficiency or simply as a way to survive on diminished income• the voluntary simplicity movement that seeks personal, social, and environmental goals through prosumer activities such as: o growing one's own foodo repairing clothing and appliances rather than buying new itemso playing musical instruments rather than listening to recorded music• use of new media-creation and distribution technologies to foster independent media (see Indymedia); many involved in independent media reject mass culture generated by concentrated corporate media• self-sufficient barter networks, notably in developing nations, such as Argentina's RGT have adopted the term prosumer

These blurrings of the roles of consumer and producer have their predecessor in the cooperative self-help movements that sprang up during various economic crises e.g. the Great Depression in the 1930s.Influence on a company's R & D budgetA fourth view of the Prosumer is as one who can influence the R & D spending of a company in ways which directly benefit them. For example, say you’re a manufacturer of widgets. One of your customers changes their requirements and asks that all their widgets sing. This customer is important enough that losing them would seriously hurt your bottom line. Based on their request you direct a portion of your R & D budget to solve their specific problem. While the customer didn’t directly make the changes they did influence your company with their design requirements. This arrangement has positive effects for both parties:

For the customer:• Immediate access to the new technology.• The technology meets their specific requirements.For the company:• Strengthened relationship with the customer.• Demonstrates a willingness to keep their customers satisfied.• The company now has a new feature/product/service they can market to other customers.

Progressive ConsumerA fifth definition of Prosumer is “Progressive Consumer” which emerged during the recession in 2008, and identifies a modern consumer who has changed their approach to the traditional methods and habits of purchasing products. A Prosumer is researching a products value, performance, and price through social networks (twitter, tumblr, facebook) and consumer product reviews (such as Amazon.com), and prices comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com and Thefind.com, before making a final decision or purchase. Within these web sites a Prosumer researches all aspects of a products performance, price and social acceptance in relative comparison to similar products within the same category. The Prosumer is searching for the highest quality product that best meets their personal needs for the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend. Based on that search criteria, the Prosumer is also willing to venture into new shopping distribution channels in order to purchase that product . The Prosumer terminology was identified by the Earl Jean Brand, where the company recognized a new consumer niche of premium denim consumers who because of the economic downturn desired a high quality, status image, socially acceptable and high performing jeans wear products at value prices.

ProsumeriseIn their paper entitled "When the Enterprise becomes the Prosumerise", Widality discusses how the very different IT and mobility needs of the prosumer, consumer and enterprise are all now melding into a common set of requirements, driven by the rise of smartphones and downloadable applications that consumers, prosumers and enterprises are consuming in equal numbers. Solutions providers can now address the "Prosumerise" (i.e. the combined needs of the consumer, prosumer and enterprise) with common solutions. Prosumerise can also be used as a verb to describe the act of prosumerising a technology or market.

ProsumptionIn their book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams coined the related term of prosumption (production/consumption) to refer to the creation of products and services by the same people who will ultimately use them. Companies and individuals are increasingly utilizing and involving the end-users to develop final products and services. In some instances, end-users are creating products on their own, without the interference or assistance of third-parties (i.e. companies, organizations, etc). For example, Lego Mindstorms allows users to download software from Lego's website so that the users can edit and update software as they wish.

There is a video that really makes sense. It showed a fact on the rise of prosumers, which is the producer-consumers. If you are a bit interested just follow this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj8ZadKgdC0&feature=player_embedded#!

With all of the things that has been discussed we ought to give or site some examples to make it simple.

Prosumer Advocates - Changing The Retail Landscape

Prosumer Advocate is a recent term that describes those consumers who promote their favorite brands and products, generally online, and usually for a gain of one type or another.

For some it is a feeling of satisfaction about a product or service that they just love, like a new car. For others it is about being rewarded for honest commentary about goods and services that they have used and experienced and are happy to share the details of with other consumers.

What stops this from being simply a money making venture for individuals, is that prosumer advocates are in fact becoming their own brands in their own right, and like any brand that wants to continue in the market, relies on public opinion on their views and accuracy of information.

And, in todays internet centric society, it is not just individuals that are emerging as prosumer advocates, but companies are also seeking vertical market associates to work with in a vast range of affiliations that benefit both parties.

So How Does This Really Work In The Real World Some Prosumer Advocate ExamplesSo while the above is an overview, how does Prosumer Advocatism work in the real world?. It's simpler than you think, and in todays online social networking world there is a huge variety of methods depending on your preferences.

For example, you may have a blog where you talk about several topics that are close to your heart. Lets say that you have recently given birth to your first child and have been blogging about your experiences to friends and family. If you are writting unique and interesting content there is a strong chance that Google will begin visiting your site and showing your blog in it's search engine when newly expectant mothers are searching certain pregnancy terms - maybe it's a particular babies toy that has allowed you to sleep longer, or recieve the enjoyment of seeing your baby enjoying itself at an earlier age.

You have had a wonderful experience with a particular maternity product, and have written about this on your blog several times - You begin to get enquiries from these expecting mothers about where they can locate the same or similar products - You do some research to assist and find that there is a local company that supplies that particular product and that they also have an affiliate program, where by if you refer visitors to their site, and those visitors purchase a product they will forward you a portion of the sale as a commision.

When you refer your visitors to this company you use a link that the maternity supply company can track and pay the commision on completed sales. As a new prosumer advocate you write several more blog posts on this subject and recieve more visitors, refer more sales and make more comissions. This is an often real scenario and many people fall into this naturally.

So how do you fall into this naturally - Well, if you have read this far then realistically you cannot - you already are aware of the nature of events required. But what if you wanted to become a Prosumer Advocate, promoting products that you use and enjoy?

The simple solution is to find out who supplies the particular product or brand that you are a fan of and enter ino a relationship with them - this could be for pin money, or some thing larger depending on your time constraints, knowledge of technology and how the internet works. Keep in mind that this could be done off line in a retail environment, working in an aged care facility, factory or really any other environment - It all comes down to becoming a devotee of that particular product, brand or service.

There is a wealth of companies where ever you are that are looking for good referrers or spheres of influenece who understand that having say 10 good prosumer advocates is better than inversting in tradtional marketing like mail box drops, radio or even TV advertising.Prosumer Advocates Promoting A whole Company Range This Really Kicks The Subject Up A NotchIf we refer to the above example, and this could be used similarly with Facebook, Twitter or any of the other existing and new social networks you can see that it really is about one thing - Gaining an unknown individuals trust and building that trust by promoting products or brands that you would, or preferably have used previously.

But there is a larger force in play, and while the above examples give sway to traditional bricks and mortar marketing strategies, there is a new generation of business that is harnessing this power to the good of both manufacturers and consumers.

These are the revelutionary organisations that see the the gap between supply, marketing and demand and who fill this void with alliances between reputable manufacturers and consumers while offering better price points through secure internet purchasing platforms. One prosumer advocate supplier is the sole sourcing and manufacturing platform for www.australia-best-buys.com, Wallcann, an Adelaide based company managed by Clive Wallace that is leading the field in this area.

My own example would be this. We prosumers do not wait for slippers company to introduce to us a new design of their product. We give them the design we like and they give to us the finish product. We dictate to them what we like, we produce the design and they produce us the finish product.

Environment Mastery is now taking the idea and imparts knowledge to us in our technopreneurship 2. We discuss already many topics in our technopreneurship focusing on Environment Mastery. As we continue the topics about Environment Mastery we are now on the business convergence area. Before taking further discussion about on convergence, our instructor gives a video which is related on business convergence. Business convergence is now taking the part of the business world today. Defining the word convergence it is the occurrence of two or more things coming together and it is the approach of an infinite series to a finite limit. As what I have stated in my previous output which is about the trends and opportunities in convergence which was given to us by our instructor convergence is very essential now in the business world today.

Marketing convergence is one of the examples of the convergence in the business nowadays. In marketing convergence there are factors that occur in the business today; venture to ecommerce, internet marketing magic and the death of the consumer. Out of the three, death of consumer catch interest of most us and wonder why it is happen besides we are still called consumer.

There is what we called the death of consumer in the business world it is because Prosumer takes place. But what is Prosumer by the way? And what is consumer indeed.

Consumer it is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different context, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary. In the marketing, when we say consumer they typically talking a person as consumer which is an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy or not-buy decision.

While based on my on understanding of what is Prosumer really is, it is another term used for the consumer which is demanding enough for there product and want the best product for them. But as I have search on the internet they define Prosumer as a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: he business sector sees the Prosumer as a market segment. The word is a combination of producer and consumer that perfectly describe the millions of participants in the Web 2.0 revolution. It’s not a new word, but it’s a word that will become the norm in the coming years. It’s already being used by companies such as Sony to describe users of video cameras.

It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. Most recently, in the mental health field, the word “prosumer” has come to mean “consumer/provider,” also known as a “peer provider.” Prosumerise has been coined by the Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer and enterprise.

But why there is such a Prosumer and the death of consumer happens in the business today? This is the question that circulating in my thoughts when our instructor discussing the marketing convergence. After the discussion I have found the answer of my own question and got some knowledge about what really happen why the consumer are already dead.

The truth is consumer are not really dead it is just consumer nowadays are very demanding and sophisticated not just like on the past that the consumer are contented already on what they get on the market but today there is really a big change happen on the consumer to the business. At the present time consumer are now having an attitude WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) which means that they want the best product and services may offer to them and that is why they call now as the Prosumer. They are now very common in many fields that were once the sole province of professionals. Prosumer have this area where they can gained a high degree of visibility and this is on the home improvement industry. Before these, where they get the idea of Prosumer? The concept of a Prosumer is started on the late 20th century idea that combines some of the common characteristics of a professional and a consumer. The term is generally applied to situations where consumers are considered to have reached a level of sophistication that the professional-consumer can effectively dictate the perimeters for the production of goods and services in terms of quality and structure. The difference between the garden variety consumer and the Prosumer is that the latter typically possesses such a strong working knowledge with the product that he or she can successfully determine and perhaps even design a better product offering.

Observing the business side, they now more concern with their client and to the consumer. They are now offer more services just to satisfy the needs and wants for them. Many technopreneur now are very wise enough for them to create and innovative way on their businesses. They also take advantage the changing of the habits of the consumer and use it for the benefit of their business and in return they give it back to the consumer by way of services just like customizing such item or product. And most of the business today weather it is big or small they offer customizing item just to entice the people to buy and get their product. However there is a trend in marketing nowadays which is to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profiles and psycho-graphic of profiles of market segments, marketers have started to engage in personalized marketing which I have give example above, permission marketing and the mass customization. Again these are all the effect of what we called paradigm shift because as the years goes by, the generation have change and the surroundings have also change as well as the people might have also change. There is no such things did not experience to change and to be change. Mostly the change that happen are all started from us because we want something new and we want more out of the product that what we see and buy from the market. And that’s what really happens in the marketing convergence in the business now, the consumers have vanished and the Prosumer takes place. They are also willing to venture into new shopping distribution channels in order to purchase that product.

Citing an example for this is on the computer where as the combination of affordable computer technology and the internet have also made it possible it is because Prosumer assume a place in the world of publishing and it may not happen if without the software programs and the high quality printing materials and equipment. Now the Prosumer can produce hard copy and electronic magazines on a favorable hobby or interest. In this example, it is show that the Prosumer may have also the right to command and do whatever they may like. They not the usual consumer before now they have justify the saying “the customer are always right”. They can also be associated with a number of other fields as well like in the photography, interior decorating, and even the beverage industry has a number of people who qualify as a prosumers. As a technology continues to evolve, there is no doubt that the prosumer phenomenon will continue to grow more. Whatever the people may like and wanted to do still they are also part of evolution because we people are the brain behind of every technology may release to the community so that we are the first step of evolution in the technology.

Another definition of prosumer is that it is a “progressive consumer” which emerged during the recession in 2008, and identifies a modern consumer who has changed their approach to the traditional methods and habits of purchasing products. A prosumer is researching a products value, performance and price through social networks tumbler and face book and consumer product reviews (such as amazon.com), and prices comparison shopping engines such as nextag.com and thefind .com, before making a final decision or purchase. The prosumer is searching for the highest quality product that best meets their personal needs for the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend. The prosumer terminology was identified by the, where the company recognized a new consumer niche of premium denim consumers who because of the economic downturn desired a high quality, status image, socially acceptable and high performing jeans wear products at value prices. Companies and individuals are increasingly utilizing and involving the end-user to develop final products and services. In some instances, end-users are creating products on their own, without the interference or assistance of third-parties which includes the companies, organizations and etc. for example, Lego mind storms allows users to download software from Lego’s website so that the users can edit and update software as they wish.

In comparison with prosumer and the consumer, both them are likely the same but they only differ on the idea that the prosumer can demand whatever they like or their product and wanted it to be customize while in the side of consumer although they have also the rights to demand for their products but on the idea that they are already contented of what they have buy and get from your store or shop. These are only some of the facts which many of the entrepreneur today are adopting that idea and use it to enhance more their services which they may offer to the people. These switching of the idea are the effect of what we called convergence of the business. Convergence are everywhere in the business they merge some of the idea and concept where they think it can be useful and give benefit to other. Through these changes the consumer also changes from being contented of what they get and buy to being demanding and sophisticated of what they want. Through all of this, there are ways in which a new accord can be struck. Personalization of messages will become more important, a hyper-individualism seems to be becoming normal and relationships are delimiting the power of contracts. Businesses that understand all these pressures are likely to do well; to accord with the times but it is never simple. Business interest might also find their way by the use of social media as a kind of advertising-syringe; precise messages, precisely administered to spending-junkies. This is the crystal meth model of marketing.

Consumers have different behaviors which influence them to take the changes. Consumer behavior is the study, when, why, how and where people do or not buy a product. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship management, personalization, customization and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions. Once the consumer has recognized a problem, they search for information on products and services that can solve that problem. Belch and Belch (2007) explain that consumers undertake both an internal (memory) and an external search.Sources of information include:

Once the alternatives have been evaluated, the consumer is ready to make a purchase decision. Sometimes purchase intention does not result in an actual purchase. The marketing organization must facilitate the consumer to act on their purchase intention. The organization can use variety of techniques to achieve this. The provision of credit or payment terms may encourage purchase, or a sales promotion such as the opportunity to receive a premium or enter a competition may provide an incentive to buy now. The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with purchase decision is integration. Once the integration is achieved; the organization can influence the purchase decisions much more easily.

The consumer behaviour influences by different factors which internal or external and this are demographics, psychographics (lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. Consumer behaviour concern with consumer need consumer actions in the direction of satisfying needs leads to his behaviour of every individual depend on thinking and culture, sub-culture, locality, royalty, ethnicity, family, social class, past experience reference groups, lifestyle, market mix factors.

Often, we take cultural influences for granted, but they are significant. An American will usually not bargain with a store owner. This, however, is a common practice in much of the World. Physical factors also influence our behavior. We are more likely to buy a soft drink when we are thirsty, for example, and food manufacturers have found that it is more effective to advertise their products on the radio in the late afternoon when people are getting hungry. A person’s self-image will also tend to influence what he or she will buy—an upwardly mobile manager may buy a flashy car to project an image of success. Social factors also influence what the consumers buy—often, consumers seek to imitate others whom they admire, and may buy the same brands. The social environment can include both the mainstream culture (e.g., Americans are more likely to have corn flakes or ham and eggs for breakfast than to have rice, which is preferred in many Asian countries) and a subculture (e.g., rap music often appeals to a segment within the population that seeks to distinguish itself from the mainstream population). Thus, sneaker manufacturers are eager to have their products worn by admired athletes. Finally, consumer behavior is influenced by learning—you try a hamburger and learn that it satisfies your hunger and tastes good, and the next time you are hungry, you may consider another hamburger.

Consumer Choice and Decision Making: Problem Recognition. One model of consumer decision making involves several steps. The first one is problem recognition—you realize that something is not as it should be. Perhaps, for example, your car is getting more difficult to start and is not accelerating well. The second step is information search—what are some alternative ways of solving the problem? You might buy a new car, buy a used car, take your car in for repair, ride the bus, ride a taxi, or ride a skateboard to work. The third step involves evaluation of alternatives. A skateboard is inexpensive, but may be ill-suited for long distances and for rainy days. Finally, we have the purchase stage, and sometimes a post-purchase stage (e.g., you return a product to the store because you did not find it satisfactory). In reality, people may go back and forth between the stages. For example, a person may resume alternative identification during while evaluating already known alternatives.

The business an implication of the prosumer is that they rise to power in the areas of pricing and customer services is a direct result of connectivity. In the area of customer service, this connectivity results in heightened expectations regarding the quality and time frame associated with customer-to-vendor contact. An instant is good; minutes are acceptable; maybe even hours, but a day just won't cut it with today's prosumers. There is also an ever-expanding trend to view shopping not merely as the satisfaction of a consumer's "needs," but also as recreation and entertainment. From this recreational prosumers viewpoint, the need to tailor and customize the offering, price and value to each consumer is even more apparent. But simply offering more choices is not the entire equation; indeed, too much choice will make your prosumer unhappy. The prosumer in the communications market is highly likely to embrace broadband and new digital services (e.g., digital video). They are likely to buy a bundle of services from one company, but are also very likely to switch from one provider to another to get the best service or offer. Incumbent as well as emerging services providers should make the prosumer a segment of high focus, due to the prosumers willingness to switch providers as well as the high average revenue per customer.

Global prosumers are best defined as the 25 to 28 percent of consumers who regularly make or break products and brands, or create market shifts. The prosumer thinks differently than Baby Boomers See generation X. When making buying decisions--research shows it takes only a small number, approximately two to three percent of global prosumers, to create a new trend worldwide and generate the marketing buzz that can make your commercial effort a boom or a bust.

Prosumers revel in options, and want to feel they are doing the smart thing. What's smart depends on the context and the individual, but typically means being well informed, knowing what's available and checking out the opinions of others. When it comes to consumption, prosumers regard low prices as smart, unless they're trumped by better value for a higher price, where value includes elements such as customer service, design and brand. This makes the prosumer--your customer--choosy and fickle.

The prosumer demands a service bundle with a rich mix of service options. To deliver this bundled experience, a service provider may need to integrate products and services provided by a host of business partners. For example, the launch of a broadband bundle with a new service capability based on mobile gaming technology may require the integration and synchronization of networks and ordering between a service provider and its gaming partner. This calls for service providers to employ partner relationship management systems and processes where multiple partners and supply chains can be integrated in the product development lifecycle and fulfillment lifecycle in order for a service provider to deliver the bundled experience.So that is why there is what we the death of consumer.

In the world today a lot of things had been change trough the hard process in which the business world in the market. The people are the ones in which is the important matters that are being said, it can make or break you into the business. As what our facilitator had said the business that are more unto the focus on making the peoples lives better become more successful than any other companies because of the right tracking of the company in the world of competition in the market. Now a days companies tend to make things more unto the consumers demand, a lot of these samples are the convergence of products from which they made it more to the typical wants and needs of the consumers or now a days called “PROSUMERS” in which the companies follow what the people want and need and not what the companies give and produces.

Before all the companies make a move to next process on developing things for the next product or for the product they are making they must consider the word “consumer’s behavior” is all about. When, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general.

Customer behavior study is based on consumer buying behavior, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behavior analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship management, personalization, customization and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.

The most important characteristic of a social function is identification of the interactive effect of alternatives and creating a logical relation with the ranks. Marketing provides services in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle, the consumer.

Eliminating unfair or negative comments may be time-consuming, but it will make all the difference to your sales ledger. Contacting those who have posted about your product is always a good idea, offer public explanations as to why a particular complaint or problem has occurred, and always apologize. You can offer a particular customer a refund, or a replacement. Make sure that the customer is dealt with in such a way that they will feel obliged to retract any negative postings, and start singing your praises instead. Be friendly, and develop a relationship with the disgruntled party.

There are process and facts that can be reconsidered in all the things to make and decide on what, where and how the products can be introduce in the right time and place. For you to be able to recognize the problems in the coming future of your companies product sales, that sometimes you can not control because of some factors that you have mistakenly controlled. Things to consider in order for that are really a great decision to make by all means in the marketing plan of a company.

It may be that the person you are dealing with is a serial complainer, and that you are facing an uphill struggle. You will never remove every negative comment from the Internet, so don't worry about the odd few difficult customers. Just as a few negative reviews on the prosumer will feel that a smattering of less than complimentary remarks gives a more credible picture of how other prosumers feel because it could have made a big impact on your target consumers on the products you are selling.

In these process the company might want to interrogate and made some advance research unto the growing groups of consumers and prosumers that are arising in the field of the market in which the people had evolved because of the changing world now a days.

Producer and consumer

Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt suggested in their 1972 book Take Today, (p. 4) that with electric technology, the consumer would become a producer. In the 1980 book, The Third Wave, futurologist Alvin Toffler coined the term "prosumer" when he predicted that the role of producers and consumers would begin to blur and merge (even though he described it in his book Future Shock from 1970). Toffler envisioned a highly saturated marketplace as mass production of standardized products began to satisfy basic consumer demands. To continue growing profit, businesses would initiate a process of mass customization that is the mass production of highly customized products.

However, to reach a high degree of customization, consumers would have to take part in the production process especially in specifying design requirements. In a sense, this is merely an extension or broadening of the kind of relationship that many affluent clients have had with professionals like architects for many decades.Toffler has extended these and many other ideas well into the 21st-century. Along with recently published works such as Revolutionary Wealth (2006), we can recognize and assess both the concept and fact of the prosumer as it is seen and felt on a worldwide scale. That these concepts are having global impact and reach, however, can be measured in part by noting in particular, Toffler's popularity in China. Discussing some of these issues with Newt Gingrich on C-Span's After Words program in June 2006, Toffler mentioned that The Third Wave is the second ranked bestseller of all time in China, just behind a work by Mao Zedong.

Don Tapscott more fully elaborated on the concept in his 1995 book The Digital Economy calling it "Prosumption."However, mass customization has not taken place in most areas of the economy. Most consumption continues to be passive as critics of television, recorded music, and fast food would argue. Indeed, people are generally uninterested in going to the effort of customizing the myriad products that comprise modern consumer culture. In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, Barry Schwartz argues that diminishing returns from a confusing abundance of consumer choice is producing stress and dissatisfaction.3 Still, one key area of high-customization is taking place: highly involved hobbyists.

Professional consumer

With customization focused on leisure pursuits, Toffler's initial combination has been largely supplanted by a second pair of blurring roles: that of the professional and consumer. In particular, hobbyists have become ever-more demanding in the pursuits of their hobbies, often rising above the level of dilettante (an amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest) to the point of commanding skills equal to that of professionals.

Key examples of such hobbies are:

• home improvement as illustrated by the rise of hardware stores such as Home Depot

• cooking as illustrated by creation of entirely new cable television channels entirely dedicated to the culinary arts such as The Food Channel or Food Network

• photography as illustrated by still cameras and camcorders that, often, are on a par with equipment used by professionals

This professional slant of the prosumer term is most common in photography which is a field that highlights prosumer trends. Access to professional-level equipment and skills is made possible by combination of factors such as:

• high disposable incomes by some sectors of the population• increased leisure time, again, for some sectors of the population• continuously falling prices of ever more advanced products (especially electronics)

• media geared towards amateurs and hobbyists:

o beginning in the 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing, a growing profusion of magazines to satisfy specialized interestso beginning in the mid-1990s with the advent of the Internet, an even wider range of websites with online forums to pool experience

• Pertaining to electronics; are considered to be "on the fence" as a product of lower quality than a professional product, and higher quality (sometimes in the form of bells and whistles) than a consumer product. Some examples include:

o Digital camcorderso Still cameraso HDTVs

Non-corporate producer and consumer

Yet a third meaning or usage of prosumer is springing up, especially among some activist groups. That is, the producer and consumer roles are being combined so as to exclude (or at least diminish) the role of the corporate producer; thus, rather than generating higher corporate profits from value-added products, producers would, at best, be reduced to supplying lower-profit commodity inputs. Indeed, the more consumer-oriented prosumer spin is irrelevant to many people with diminished disposable income caused by various economic trends such as globalization, automation, and wealth concentration. Identifiable trends and movements outside of the mainstream economy that have adopted prosumer terminology and techniques include:

• a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach as a means of economic self-sufficiency or simply as a way to survive on diminished income

• self-sufficient barter networks, notably in developing nations, such as Argentina's RGT have adopted the term prosumer.

These blurring of the roles of consumer and producer have their predecessor in the cooperative self-help movements that sprang up during various economic crises e.g. the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Influence on a company's R & D budget

A fourth view of the Prosumer is as one who can influence the R & D spending of a company in ways which directly benefit them. For example, say you’re a manufacturer of widgets. One of your customers changes their requirements and asks that all their widgets sing. This customer is important enough that losing them would seriously hurt your bottom line. Based on their request you direct a portion of your R & D budget to solve their specific problem. While the customer didn’t directly make the changes they did influence your company with their design requirements. This arrangement has positive effects for both parties:

For the customer:

• Immediate access to the new technology.• The technology meets their specific requirements.

For the company:

• Strengthened relationship with the customer.• Demonstrates a willingness to keep their customers satisfied.• The company now has a new feature/product/service they can market to other customers.

Prosumerise

In their paper entitled "When the Enterprise becomes the Prosumerise", Widality discusses how the very different IT and mobility needs of the prosumer, consumer and enterprise are all now melding into a common set of requirements, driven by the rise of smartphones and downloadable applications that consumers, prosumers and enterprises are consuming in equal numbers. Solutions providers can now address the "Prosumerise" (i.e. the combined needs of the consumer, prosumer and enterprise) with common solutions. Prosumerise can also be used as a verb to describe the act of prosumerising a technology or market.

Progressive Consumer

The “Progressive Consumer” which emerged during the recession in 2008, and identifies a modern consumer who has changed their approach to the traditional methods and habits of purchasing products. A Prosumer is researching a products value, performance, and price through social networks (twitter, tumbler, facebook) and consumer product reviews (such as Amazon.com), and prices comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com and Thefind.com, before making a final decision or purchase. Within these web sites a Prosumer researches all aspects of a products performance, price and social acceptance in relative comparison to similar products within the same category.

The Prosumer is searching for the highest quality product that best meets their personal needs for the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend. Based on that search criteria, the Prosumer is also willing to venture into new shopping distribution channels in order to purchase that product. The Prosumer terminology was identified by the Earl Jean Brand, where the company recognized a new consumer niche of premium denim consumers who because of the economic downturn desired a high quality, status image, socially acceptable and high performing jeans wear products at value prices.

Information search

Once the consumer has recognized a problem, they search for information on products and services that can solve that problem. Consumers undertake both an internal (memory) and an external search.The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with information search is perception. Perception is defined as "the process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world".

The selective perception process

Stage Description

• Selective exposure consumers select which promotional messages they will expose themselves to.• Selective attention consumers select which promotional messages they will pay attention to.• Selective comprehension consumers interpret messages in line with their beliefs, attitudes, motives and experiences.• Selective retention consumers remember messages that are more meaningful or important to them.

The implications of this process help develop an effective promotional strategy, and select which sources of information are more effective for the brand.

Information evaluation

At this time the consumer compares the brands and products that are in their evoked set. How can the marketing organization increase the likelihood that their brand is part of the consumer's evoked (consideration) set? Consumers evaluate alternatives in terms of the functional and psychological benefits that they offer. The marketing organization needs to understand what benefits consumers are seeking and therefore which attributes are most important in terms of making a decision.

Purchase decision

Once the alternatives have been evaluated, the consumer is ready to make a purchase decision. Sometimes purchase intention does not result in an actual purchase. The marketing organization must facilitate the consumer to act on their purchase intention. The organization can use variety of techniques to achieve this. The provision of credit or payment terms may encourage purchase, or a sales promotion such as the opportunity to receive a premium or enter a competition may provide an incentive to buy now. The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with purchase decision is integration. Once the integration is achieved, the organization can influence the purchase decisions much more easily.

Post purchase evaluation

The EKB model was further developed by Rice (1993) which suggested there should be a feedback loop, Foxall (2005) further suggests the importance of the post purchase evaluation and that the post purchase evaluation is a key due to its influences on future purchase patterns.Internal influences

In all aspects these process are reliable in which companies can make a good market plan. The Death of Consumers can be evaded if the company could have some plans in making their products as one of the consumers best buy in all aspects in which the product in line with will be at the best height in all treats of the new entry of all rising companies and ventures.

The concept of a prosumer is a late 20th century idea that combines some of the common characteristics of a professional and a consumer. The term is generally applied to situations where consumers are considered to have reached a level of sophistication that the professional-consumer can effectively dictate the perimeters for the production of goods and services in terms of quality and structure. The difference between the garden variety consumer and the prosumer is that the latter typically possesses such a strong working knowledge with the product that he or she can successfully determine and perhaps even design a better product offering.

His advent of online communities and the huge amount of information now available through the Internet has led to the enablement of the consumer, and the development of the prosumer. No longer is the customer an easy horse to lead to water. Customers have become proactive in how and where to spend their money, often researching many different aspects of a product before making that final purchase decision.

Customers now have a far wider choice in suppliers because of websites and e-commerce, and can also look at reviews of products, compare prices, and find out from other prosumers all about the company; for instance, whether the after sales experience is good, bad or indifferent when something goes wrong.

One bad customer can start an avalanche of complaints online which, if not monitored and responded to, can lead to the biggest PR headache of all time. Prosumers do not necessarily complain directly to you, they quite often go to their favorite forum, blog or social network and type their moans there. It is important to monitor as often as you can what is being said about your company or products.

• Act of identifying the problem – In some ways companies should always find the real problem and state the facts on what actions and process should be the right approach to the problem. What are the things at stake is it possible to try not to make any actions on any losses that the company would not go down. And lastly they would always find the right timing, trend and what the people are demanding and what the cost and price for the answer to problem would be needing.

• Examine the product for concealed items – Examining the product in order to judge its quality, importance, extent, value and condition. Since you are finding an alternative way or alternative things that able to serve as a substitute or the possibility of choosing different products of all the company that are inline to the things you are going to buy or to canvas with.

• Other possibility assessment of value – The products that are sometimes not in its good conditions are sometimes the main problems why the companies loss lots of their primes target customer in some ways that their products would always be stab and not even a glimpse the customer will go for the low price even if the product don’t have qualities but in my suggestion like the CD-R king company all their products have a low costing price and at the same time always receives a good feed back in all its customer because of the two reasons quality and quantity if the products they are selling.

• Act of choosing or power to choose – of course we have a power to decide and to choose one product over another or we can choose what the items that qualifies to our standard of the product we are buying. In it all the costumers could have an intuition on all the products they have tried and suits the needs best.

• Notice to the acquisition evaluation – make an evaluation to the price of such items because for all we know that price really matter a lot and that would be the first thing to be decided of all the consumers you are targeting, next would be the quality and quantity of the products performance and other features to be said of.

Examples to cite:

News came of the end of the last specialized consumer electronics device. The GPS, which had seemed destined to continue its existence, passed on at the announcement of the Google Maps navigation feature on Android 2.0. OK, a bit exaggerated, but not by much. The current stock of Smartphone’s is showing how many categories of consumer electronics are simply going to disappear, because virtually no one will need them — particularly when the feature set is so much richer. The vision of device “convergence,” long touted as something to desire, will suddenly bite a lot of vendors on their rear ends when they realize that it also means a tumbling opportunity to sell product and, ultimately, a shrinking consumer electronics market.

People are talking about the new Motorola Droid being a GPS killer, but that’s just one category. Next up, cameras, both still and video — 5 megapixels (often more than enough, as I’ve found in my photographic work) with white balance, scene modes, and 720 x 480-pixel “DVD quality” video images. Right now too grainy, according to the PC World review, but something that can certainly be fixed.

Other categories? How about MP3 players? If you look at unit product sales for Apple, it’s clear that as the iPhone increases in popularity, the iPod falls. Granted, that still leaves millions of the units going out store doors, but it suggests what will happen when a majority of handsets become smart phones with storage and user interfaces that make the devices a natural choice for downloading and playing music.

Portable DVD player? I don’t know about your family, but my daughter watches video on her iPod touch. Digital recorder for taking notes? Please, not with a straight face. And with the applications available now or soon coming you, consumers will have all manner of software that will eliminate for many (though not all) the need for a netbook or laptop. But while everyone is drooling, there must be executives scared witless. As you roll first one thing and then another into a single device, you eliminate the need for additional purchases. It’s the logical extension of the march of semiconductors, with a single chip adding ever more functions. Eventually you buy only a fraction of the chips you once needed, and a lot of companies try to figure out what to do with their spare time. Now that’s going to happen on a device level, when suddenly there’s nowhere left to run for anyone.

Overall, the things that had came the other year will be gone in the coming year in all the process that would under take by the consumers ideal demand process in the other countries that are basically practicing all the things that are being profounded by the people that are emerging the ways of the future in the market. But here in the Philippines the thought of all the things, that are being said the new order of all companies and consumer relationship are not yet founded in which we are being left behind in the growing change, making the country, us one of the slow growing country in the world in terms of the new ways, knowledge and technology that is being used. Because of lock in knowledge and professionals, and the people that are dependent on the detection of the higher people that manipulates the whole market in the country.

In the world today a lot of things had been change trough the hard process in which the business world in the market. The people are the ones in which is the important matters that are being said, it can make or break you into the business. As what our facilitator had said the business that are more unto the focus on making the peoples lives better become more successful than any other companies because of the right tracking of the company in the world of competition in the market. Now a days companies tend to make things more unto the consumers demand, a lot of these samples are the convergence of products from which they made it more to the typical wants and needs of the consumers or now a days called “PROSUMERS” in which the companies follow what the people want and need and not what the companies give and produces.

Before all the companies make a move to next process on developing things for the next product or for the product they are making they must consider the word “consumer’s behavior” is all about. When, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general.

Customer behavior study is based on consumer buying behavior, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behavior analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship management, personalization, customization and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.

The most important characteristic of a social function is identification of the interactive effect of alternatives and creating a logical relation with the ranks. Marketing provides services in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle, the consumer.

Eliminating unfair or negative comments may be time-consuming, but it will make all the difference to your sales ledger. Contacting those who have posted about your product is always a good idea, offer public explanations as to why a particular complaint or problem has occurred, and always apologize. You can offer a particular customer a refund, or a replacement. Make sure that the customer is dealt with in such a way that they will feel obliged to retract any negative postings, and start singing your praises instead. Be friendly, and develop a relationship with the disgruntled party.

There are process and facts that can be reconsidered in all the things to make and decide on what, where and how the products can be introduce in the right time and place. For you to be able to recognize the problems in the coming future of your companies product sales, that sometimes you can not control because of some factors that you have mistakenly controlled. Things to consider in order for that are really a great decision to make by all means in the marketing plan of a company.

It may be that the person you are dealing with is a serial complainer, and that you are facing an uphill struggle. You will never remove every negative comment from the Internet, so don't worry about the odd few difficult customers. Just as a few negative reviews on the prosumer will feel that a smattering of less than complimentary remarks gives a more credible picture of how other prosumers feel because it could have made a big impact on your target consumers on the products you are selling.

In these process the company might want to interrogate and made some advance research unto the growing groups of consumers and prosumers that are arising in the field of the market in which the people had evolved because of the changing world now a days.

Producer and consumer

Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt suggested in their 1972 book Take Today, (p. 4) that with electric technology, the consumer would become a producer. In the 1980 book, The Third Wave, futurologist Alvin Toffler coined the term "prosumer" when he predicted that the role of producers and consumers would begin to blur and merge (even though he described it in his book Future Shock from 1970). Toffler envisioned a highly saturated marketplace as mass production of standardized products began to satisfy basic consumer demands. To continue growing profit, businesses would initiate a process of mass customization that is the mass production of highly customized products.

However, to reach a high degree of customization, consumers would have to take part in the production process especially in specifying design requirements. In a sense, this is merely an extension or broadening of the kind of relationship that many affluent clients have had with professionals like architects for many decades.Toffler has extended these and many other ideas well into the 21st-century. Along with recently published works such as Revolutionary Wealth (2006), we can recognize and assess both the concept and fact of the prosumer as it is seen and felt on a worldwide scale. That these concepts are having global impact and reach, however, can be measured in part by noting in particular, Toffler's popularity in China. Discussing some of these issues with Newt Gingrich on C-Span's After Words program in June 2006, Toffler mentioned that The Third Wave is the second ranked bestseller of all time in China, just behind a work by Mao Zedong.

Don Tapscott more fully elaborated on the concept in his 1995 book The Digital Economy calling it "Prosumption."However, mass customization has not taken place in most areas of the economy. Most consumption continues to be passive as critics of television, recorded music, and fast food would argue. Indeed, people are generally uninterested in going to the effort of customizing the myriad products that comprise modern consumer culture. In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, Barry Schwartz argues that diminishing returns from a confusing abundance of consumer choice is producing stress and dissatisfaction.3 Still, one key area of high-customization is taking place: highly involved hobbyists.

Professional consumer

With customization focused on leisure pursuits, Toffler's initial combination has been largely supplanted by a second pair of blurring roles: that of the professional and consumer. In particular, hobbyists have become ever-more demanding in the pursuits of their hobbies, often rising above the level of dilettante (an amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest) to the point of commanding skills equal to that of professionals.

Key examples of such hobbies are:

• home improvement as illustrated by the rise of hardware stores such as Home Depot

• cooking as illustrated by creation of entirely new cable television channels entirely dedicated to the culinary arts such as The Food Channel or Food Network

• photography as illustrated by still cameras and camcorders that, often, are on a par with equipment used by professionals

This professional slant of the prosumer term is most common in photography which is a field that highlights prosumer trends. Access to professional-level equipment and skills is made possible by combination of factors such as:

• high disposable incomes by some sectors of the population• increased leisure time, again, for some sectors of the population• continuously falling prices of ever more advanced products (especially electronics)

• media geared towards amateurs and hobbyists:

o beginning in the 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing, a growing profusion of magazines to satisfy specialized interestso beginning in the mid-1990s with the advent of the Internet, an even wider range of websites with online forums to pool experience

• Pertaining to electronics; are considered to be "on the fence" as a product of lower quality than a professional product, and higher quality (sometimes in the form of bells and whistles) than a consumer product. Some examples include:

o Digital camcorderso Still cameraso HDTVs

Non-corporate producer and consumer

Yet a third meaning or usage of prosumer is springing up, especially among some activist groups. That is, the producer and consumer roles are being combined so as to exclude (or at least diminish) the role of the corporate producer; thus, rather than generating higher corporate profits from value-added products, producers would, at best, be reduced to supplying lower-profit commodity inputs. Indeed, the more consumer-oriented prosumer spin is irrelevant to many people with diminished disposable income caused by various economic trends such as globalization, automation, and wealth concentration. Identifiable trends and movements outside of the mainstream economy that have adopted prosumer terminology and techniques include:

• a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach as a means of economic self-sufficiency or simply as a way to survive on diminished income

• self-sufficient barter networks, notably in developing nations, such as Argentina's RGT have adopted the term prosumer.

These blurring of the roles of consumer and producer have their predecessor in the cooperative self-help movements that sprang up during various economic crises e.g. the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Influence on a company's R & D budget

A fourth view of the Prosumer is as one who can influence the R & D spending of a company in ways which directly benefit them. For example, say you’re a manufacturer of widgets. One of your customers changes their requirements and asks that all their widgets sing. This customer is important enough that losing them would seriously hurt your bottom line. Based on their request you direct a portion of your R & D budget to solve their specific problem. While the customer didn’t directly make the changes they did influence your company with their design requirements. This arrangement has positive effects for both parties:

For the customer:

• Immediate access to the new technology.• The technology meets their specific requirements.

For the company:

• Strengthened relationship with the customer.• Demonstrates a willingness to keep their customers satisfied.• The company now has a new feature/product/service they can market to other customers.

Prosumerise

In their paper entitled "When the Enterprise becomes the Prosumerise", Widality discusses how the very different IT and mobility needs of the prosumer, consumer and enterprise are all now melding into a common set of requirements, driven by the rise of smartphones and downloadable applications that consumers, prosumers and enterprises are consuming in equal numbers. Solutions providers can now address the "Prosumerise" (i.e. the combined needs of the consumer, prosumer and enterprise) with common solutions. Prosumerise can also be used as a verb to describe the act of prosumerising a technology or market.

Progressive Consumer

The “Progressive Consumer” which emerged during the recession in 2008, and identifies a modern consumer who has changed their approach to the traditional methods and habits of purchasing products. A Prosumer is researching a products value, performance, and price through social networks (twitter, tumbler, facebook) and consumer product reviews (such as Amazon.com), and prices comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com and Thefind.com, before making a final decision or purchase. Within these web sites a Prosumer researches all aspects of a products performance, price and social acceptance in relative comparison to similar products within the same category.

The Prosumer is searching for the highest quality product that best meets their personal needs for the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend. Based on that search criteria, the Prosumer is also willing to venture into new shopping distribution channels in order to purchase that product. The Prosumer terminology was identified by the Earl Jean Brand, where the company recognized a new consumer niche of premium denim consumers who because of the economic downturn desired a high quality, status image, socially acceptable and high performing jeans wear products at value prices.

Information search

Once the consumer has recognized a problem, they search for information on products and services that can solve that problem. Consumers undertake both an internal (memory) and an external search.The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with information search is perception. Perception is defined as "the process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world".

The selective perception process

Stage Description

• Selective exposure consumers select which promotional messages they will expose themselves to.• Selective attention consumers select which promotional messages they will pay attention to.• Selective comprehension consumers interpret messages in line with their beliefs, attitudes, motives and experiences.• Selective retention consumers remember messages that are more meaningful or important to them.

The implications of this process help develop an effective promotional strategy, and select which sources of information are more effective for the brand.

Information evaluation

At this time the consumer compares the brands and products that are in their evoked set. How can the marketing organization increase the likelihood that their brand is part of the consumer's evoked (consideration) set? Consumers evaluate alternatives in terms of the functional and psychological benefits that they offer. The marketing organization needs to understand what benefits consumers are seeking and therefore which attributes are most important in terms of making a decision.

Purchase decision

Once the alternatives have been evaluated, the consumer is ready to make a purchase decision. Sometimes purchase intention does not result in an actual purchase. The marketing organization must facilitate the consumer to act on their purchase intention. The organization can use variety of techniques to achieve this. The provision of credit or payment terms may encourage purchase, or a sales promotion such as the opportunity to receive a premium or enter a competition may provide an incentive to buy now. The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with purchase decision is integration. Once the integration is achieved, the organization can influence the purchase decisions much more easily.

Post purchase evaluation

The EKB model was further developed by Rice (1993) which suggested there should be a feedback loop, Foxall (2005) further suggests the importance of the post purchase evaluation and that the post purchase evaluation is a key due to its influences on future purchase patterns.Internal influences

In all aspects these process are reliable in which companies can make a good market plan. The Death of Consumers can be evaded if the company could have some plans in making their products as one of the consumers best buy in all aspects in which the product in line with will be at the best height in all treats of the new entry of all rising companies and ventures.

The concept of a prosumer is a late 20th century idea that combines some of the common characteristics of a professional and a consumer. The term is generally applied to situations where consumers are considered to have reached a level of sophistication that the professional-consumer can effectively dictate the perimeters for the production of goods and services in terms of quality and structure. The difference between the garden variety consumer and the prosumer is that the latter typically possesses such a strong working knowledge with the product that he or she can successfully determine and perhaps even design a better product offering.

His advent of online communities and the huge amount of information now available through the Internet has led to the enablement of the consumer, and the development of the prosumer. No longer is the customer an easy horse to lead to water. Customers have become proactive in how and where to spend their money, often researching many different aspects of a product before making that final purchase decision.

Customers now have a far wider choice in suppliers because of websites and e-commerce, and can also look at reviews of products, compare prices, and find out from other prosumers all about the company; for instance, whether the after sales experience is good, bad or indifferent when something goes wrong.

One bad customer can start an avalanche of complaints online which, if not monitored and responded to, can lead to the biggest PR headache of all time. Prosumers do not necessarily complain directly to you, they quite often go to their favorite forum, blog or social network and type their moans there. It is important to monitor as often as you can what is being said about your company or products.

• Act of identifying the problem – In some ways companies should always find the real problem and state the facts on what actions and process should be the right approach to the problem. What are the things at stake is it possible to try not to make any actions on any losses that the company would not go down. And lastly they would always find the right timing, trend and what the people are demanding and what the cost and price for the answer to problem would be needing.

• Examine the product for concealed items – Examining the product in order to judge its quality, importance, extent, value and condition. Since you are finding an alternative way or alternative things that able to serve as a substitute or the possibility of choosing different products of all the company that are inline to the things you are going to buy or to canvas with.

• Other possibility assessment of value – The products that are sometimes not in its good conditions are sometimes the main problems why the companies loss lots of their primes target customer in some ways that their products would always be stab and not even a glimpse the customer will go for the low price even if the product don’t have qualities but in my suggestion like the CD-R king company all their products have a low costing price and at the same time always receives a good feed back in all its customer because of the two reasons quality and quantity if the products they are selling.

• Act of choosing or power to choose – of course we have a power to decide and to choose one product over another or we can choose what the items that qualifies to our standard of the product we are buying. In it all the costumers could have an intuition on all the products they have tried and suits the needs best.

• Notice to the acquisition evaluation – make an evaluation to the price of such items because for all we know that price really matter a lot and that would be the first thing to be decided of all the consumers you are targeting, next would be the quality and quantity of the products performance and other features to be said of.

Examples to cite:

News came of the end of the last specialized consumer electronics device. The GPS, which had seemed destined to continue its existence, passed on at the announcement of the Google Maps navigation feature on Android 2.0. OK, a bit exaggerated, but not by much. The current stock of Smartphone’s is showing how many categories of consumer electronics are simply going to disappear, because virtually no one will need them — particularly when the feature set is so much richer. The vision of device “convergence,” long touted as something to desire, will suddenly bite a lot of vendors on their rear ends when they realize that it also means a tumbling opportunity to sell product and, ultimately, a shrinking consumer electronics market.

People are talking about the new Motorola Droid being a GPS killer, but that’s just one category. Next up, cameras, both still and video — 5 megapixels (often more than enough, as I’ve found in my photographic work) with white balance, scene modes, and 720 x 480-pixel “DVD quality” video images. Right now too grainy, according to the PC World review, but something that can certainly be fixed.

Other categories? How about MP3 players? If you look at unit product sales for Apple, it’s clear that as the iPhone increases in popularity, the iPod falls. Granted, that still leaves millions of the units going out store doors, but it suggests what will happen when a majority of handsets become smart phones with storage and user interfaces that make the devices a natural choice for downloading and playing music.

Portable DVD player? I don’t know about your family, but my daughter watches video on her iPod touch. Digital recorder for taking notes? Please, not with a straight face. And with the applications available now or soon coming you, consumers will have all manner of software that will eliminate for many (though not all) the need for a netbook or laptop. But while everyone is drooling, there must be executives scared witless. As you roll first one thing and then another into a single device, you eliminate the need for additional purchases. It’s the logical extension of the march of semiconductors, with a single chip adding ever more functions. Eventually you buy only a fraction of the chips you once needed, and a lot of companies try to figure out what to do with their spare time. Now that’s going to happen on a device level, when suddenly there’s nowhere left to run for anyone.

Overall, the things that had came the other year will be gone in the coming year in all the process that would under take by the consumers ideal demand process in the other countries that are basically practicing all the things that are being profounded by the people that are emerging the ways of the future in the market. But here in the Philippines the thought of all the things, that are being said the new order of all companies and consumer relationship are not yet founded in which we are being left behind in the growing change, making the country, us one of the slow growing country in the world in terms of the new ways, knowledge and technology that is being used. Because of lock in knowledge and professionals, and the people that are dependent on the detection of the higher people that manipulates the whole market in the country.

We were given a task to explain what we understand about “Death of the Consumers”. As what I can still remember from our past lecture/discussion about the death of the consumers is that the so called consumers are no longer exists in the world of technopreneurship/entrepreneurship and technological businesses because of the rise of the prosumers. So, first let’s define what is a consumer? A consumer refers to the casual user in contrast to the professional user. Consumer products vary in quality, ranging from flimsy, inexpensive devices to very well made; however, the term implies non-professional usage. Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary. Typically when business people and economists talk of consumers they are talking about person as consumer, an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy/not-buy decision. However there is a trend in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profiles and psycho-graphic profiles of market segments, marketers have started to engage in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization. There is increasing backlash from the public over use of the label "consumer" rather than "customer", with many finding it offensive and derogatory. Consumer electronics include electronic equipment intended for everyday use. Consumer electronics are most often used in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver. Later products include computers, telephones, MP3 players, audio equipment, televisions, calculators, GPS automotive electronics, digital cameras and players and recorders using video media such as DVDs, VCRs or camcorders. At the turn of the 21st century, the global consumer electronics industry is mainly dominated by Japanese, South Korean and American companies. Increasingly, these products have become based on digital technologies, and have largely merged with the computer industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of information technology. Consumer electronics are manufactured throughout the world, although there is a particularly high concentration of research and development activity in Japan and South Korea. The latest consumer electronics are previewed yearly at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, at which many industry pioneers speak. The law primarily uses the notion of "consumer" in relation to consumer protection laws, and the definition of consumer is often restricted to living persons (i.e. not corporations or businesses) and excludes commercial users. A typical legal rationale for protecting the consumer is based on the notion of policing market failures and inefficiencies, such as inequalities of bargaining power between a consumer and a business. As of all potential voters are also consumers, consumer protection takes on a clear political significance. Concern over the interests of consumers has also spawned much activism, as well as incorporation of consumer education into school curricula. There are also various non-profit publications, such as Consumer Reports and Choice Magazine, dedicated to assist in consumer education and decision making, and Consumer Direct in the UK. In India, the Consumer Protection Act 1986 clearly differentiates a consumer as consuming a commodity or service either for his personal domestic use or to earn his livelihood. Only consumers are protected as per this act and any person, entity or organization purchasing a commodity for commercial reasons are exempted from any benefits of this act. Furthermore, Indian case law has quite a few references on how to distinguish a consumer from a customer.

So, now let’s discuss what is a prosumer? A prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. A person who is very knowledgeable about a subject and likes to purchase high-quality equipment. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise. For example, many digital cameras fall into the prosumer category. They offer higher quality and more advanced features than the lower-end consumer variety, but still do not possess all the features of the most professional units on the market. The second usage describes a purchaser of technical equipment who wants to obtain goods of a better quality than consumer items, but can’t afford professional items (older terms for goods of this intermediate quality are semi-professional and industrial quality). Here, the word is a blend of professional and consumer. Prosumers of this sort are famed for their enthusiasm for new products and their tolerance of flaws and, from the marketing point of view, have much in common with early adopters. This usage is common among those selling video equipment, digital cameras, and similar goods (and the examples below illustrate this sense). Some manufacturers treat the SOHO (Small Office, Home Office) market as being much the same thing. This word is becoming fairly common but can be confusing, as it has two meanings. It was coined in 1980 by the futurist Alvin Toffler - in his book The Third Wave - as a blend of producer and consumer. He used it to describe a possible future type of consumer who would become involved in the design and manufacture of products, so they could be made to individual specification. He argued that we would then no longer be a passive market upon which industry dumped consumer goods but a part of the creative process. Derrick de Kerckhove has called this mass customization, in which everybody a member of a niche market is in effect, something Internet e-commerce is encouraging through cutting out the middleman between maker and buyer. This sense of prosumer has been taken up by some marketing people, but remains limited in its application.

Serving prosumers is complex; their needs cannot be defined by location, application, time of day, or device alone. In fact, that is what makes them prosumers. They seek to be connected and serviced no matter where they are, what they are trying to do, or when they are trying to do it. Although prosumers are heavy technology users, they want solutions to be simple. In particular, application user interfaces must be easily accessible for both work and their personal life, raising some issues relating to overlap between the two. For example, loading Connected Life applications onto company-owned phones is a concern to employers because of security and liability, and to employees because of privacy and ethical concerns. When work and personal lives overlap and blend so seamlessly, billing for things like mobile phones and application software also becomes blurred. So, serving the prosumer—to the satisfaction of the prosumer and his or her employer—is far from easy. Early prosumer offerings have fallen short of what these individuals really need. Mobile mail is an example of this. When it is provided by the employer, it works well for business purposes. But personal mobile mail requires yet another application from a provider such as Google or Yahoo! The only way to handle this situation is to maintain one phone for personal mail and another phone for business mail—an equally awkward solution. Effectively serving this segment requires delivering value that works for both the prosumer and the enterprise.

A few discerning industries are already aware of prosumers and their lifestyles, and have developed programs and products to serve them. The hospitality and airline industries know that when people travel for business or pleasure, they tend to select providers that offer them benefits. As a result, when someone earns extra miles flying with Airline X for business, that person will choose Airline X for leisure travel because the frequent flier miles help pay for the vacation. The financial services industry has begun cross-selling products such as insurance and banking services, especially to small- and medium-sized business owners (prime prosumer targets), recognizing that when someone starts a business, that person is more inclined to select a financial services institution with which he or she is already doing personal business. Higher-education institutions position their services to alumni as they enter the workforce, because alumni often seek corporate sponsorship for more costly graduate work. Most industries, however, have not yet instituted formal business models to pursue prosumers as a target segment. Capturing the emerging prosumer category requires a deliberate and systematic approach, with full understanding of what makes these complex individuals tick. The service provider industry (telecommunications, IP services) is absolutely essential to the prosumer’s connected lifestyle, yet these companies have done little to court this segment. Providers need to invest in network infrastructure to deliver seamless, ubiquitous, and secure prosumer experiences across personal and work requirements. Because these industries have so much to gain from prosumers, it makes a great deal of sense to start with the design of user interfaces that are blended, yet provide sufficient separation between work and personal content to avoid conflict with corporate policy. It also behooves the service provider industries to figure out a way to provide services and billing methodologies that keep the prosumer connected, yet allow for separation of work and personal activities. For instance, there should be a simple, nonintrusive method for keeping mobile phone charges separate. And there should be a way for prosumers to integrate their home and work calendars and address books without providing employer visibility into personal information (and vice versa).

To reach a high degree of customization, consumers would have to take part in the production process especially in specifying design requirements. In a sense, this is merely an extension or broadening of the kind of relationship that many affluent clients have had with professionals like architects for many decades. A mass customization has not taken place in most areas of the economy. Most consumption continues to be passive as critics of television, recorded music, and fast food would argue. Indeed, people are generally uninterested in going to the effort of customizing the myriad products that comprise modern consumer culture. In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, Barry Schwartz argues that diminishing returns from a confusing abundance of consumer choice is producing stress and dissatisfaction. Still, one key area of high-customization is taking place: highly involved hobbyists. With customization focused on leisure pursuits, Toffler's initial combination has been largely supplanted by a second pair of blurring roles: that of the professional and consumer. In particular, hobbyists have become ever-more demanding in the pursuits of their hobbies, often rising above the level of dilettante (an amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest) to the point of commanding skills equal to that of professionals. Key examples of such hobbies are:

• Home improvement as illustrated by the rise of hardware stores such as Home Depot• Cooking as illustrated by creation of entirely new cable television channels entirely dedicated to the culinary arts such as The Food Channel or Food Network• Photography as illustrated by still cameras and camcorders that, often, are on a par with equipment used by professionals

This professional slant of the prosumer term is most common in photography which is a field that highlights prosumer trends. Access to professional-level equipment and skills is made possible by combination of factors such as:

• High disposable incomes by some sectors of the population• Increased leisure time, again, for some sectors of the population• Continuously falling prices of ever more advanced products (especially electronics)• Media geared towards amateurs and hobbyists:• Beginning in the 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing, a growing profusion of magazines to satisfy specialized interests• Beginning in the mid-1990s with the advent of the Internet, an even wider range of websites with online forums to pool experience• Pertaining to electronics; are considered to be "on the fence" as a product of lower quality than a professional product, and higher quality (sometimes in the form of bells and whistles) than a consumer product. Some examples include:o Digital camcorderso Still cameraso HDTVs

Moving forward, the most critical indicator of the viability of our economy will be consumer spending. Simply put, without a buoyant consumer, there will be no recovery. Due no doubt to the negative characteristics of consumer data. the death of the consumer is receiving scant coverage.o If religion was an opiate, consumerism is narcotic. It is going nowhere.o And maybe it shouldn’t. Who would swap out of a secular, consumerist society for any of the available alternatives?o But the interests of business cannot rely on another age of passivity. Now, advertising media has to overcome an attention poverty (Simon, 1971), an advert-cynicism, people already in debt, and a growing unease over the consumption/work/life balance.o ..and then there’s sustainability.o ..and then there’s transparency and the ways in which many stakeholders including employees and labour unions will use social media.o Through all of this, there are ways in which a new accord can be struck. Personalisation of messages will become more important, a hyper-individualism seems to be becoming normal (eclecticism, customization & body art), and relationships are delimiting the power of contracts. Businesses that understand all these pressures are likely to do well; to accord with the times.But:o It is never simple. Business interests might also find their way by the use of social media as a kind of advertising-syringe; precise messages, precisely administered to spending-junkies. This is the crystal meth model of marketing. Many businesses might well do well by this route, but will they be no more than ghetto dealers retiring to their gated mansions? And will the junkies just get dumber, and dumber, and more tragic?o Because power isn’t even debated anymore. Some have it. Some don’t. It is the one thing you cannot buy; not even with a red-brick degree. Outside of war and Schumpeterian calamity, a capitalist consumerist society always exacerbates divide. It has no will, interest or instrument to remedy this.Moving onward is the most crucial indicator of the feasible and practical of the economy will be on consumer spending. When you have to run business, you have to make sure that you have sufficient and well of number of consumer. If there are not enough consumers, there will be no recovery due any doubt to the negative characteristics of consumer data. The death of the consumer is receiving scant coverage. For the advantages of being a prosumer, they can immediately access to the new technology. Thus, this technology meets their specific requirements. For the company, it is important to strengthened relationship with the customer. They must have to demonstrate a willingness to keep their customers satisfied. And lastly, the company now has a new feature, product, service they can market to the customer. We as a customer are conscious on fast inquiring for the orders. Through the wide range of internet, we can simply request and find out the products that we are going to purchase. Aside from that it would be better to communicate through internet to less the time consuming and burden to travel a distance in order to buy products.

What makes a prosumer and consumer differ? A certain site stated that, a Prosumer is researching a products value, performance, and price through social networks (twitter, tumblr, facebook) and consumer product reviews (such as Amazon.com), and prices comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com and Thefind.com, before making a final decision or purchase. In that way it is clearly defined that a prosumer has a great involvement in choosing what the best is for the amount they are going to pay. In fact, within these web sites a Prosumer researches all aspects of a products performance, price and social acceptance in relative comparison to similar products within the same category. The Prosumer is searching for the highest quality product that best meets their personal needs for the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend. Based on that search criteria, the Prosumer is also willing to venture into new shopping distribution channels in order to purchase that product. As a matter of fact, a prosumer has a capability to take risk in order that he/she can undertake business venture that would lead to profit. Who founded the prosumer? The Prosumer terminology was identified by the Earl Jean Brand, where the company recognized a new consumer niche of premium denim consumers who because of the economic downturn desired a high quality, status image, socially acceptable and high performing jeans wear products at value prices. had also read from a noble article in the internet. The article is in titled “Consumer or Prosumer” which is written last August 10, 2010 by Tim Moore. This is a very good article for those who got confused between the two matters. It specified here the buyer as a consumer “One that consumes, one that acquires goods or services for direct use of ownership” or “A heterotrophic organism that ingests other organisms or organic matter in a food chain”. By that definition, it’s all about the sale, which cares about the person. It is really selfish, demeaning view of our valued customers. Definitely, it is an old version of being a client. On the other hand, Prosumer is “One who is converse to the consumer, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process.” So what’s the best side of being a prosumer? It is they are interested in others first, sharing, giving, earning their trust. This means that consumer needs to express their feelings or opinions. This is also important, seller must have to consider the suggestion of the consumer, in order to modify and alter things for better. They are not just mindless “organisms” who just “consumes” matter. Tim Moore gave his point of view. It is that customers are critical. Just like what changing of today. We are living in a modern world. Right? Indeed, people are changing, their taste, likes and most especially their choices. We can get poor or rich service anywhere. This will also means that life is stressful; anxiety is growing as our neighbors in lives. Truthfully, procrastination or the putting off is up to 40%, rage and rudeness are increasing across the board amongst ‘service’ providers. One of the best standards mentioned in this article is the Apple Store (in fact, Tim Moore loves this store). How I wish to visit and buy gadgets in this magnificent store. This store is a perfect example of everyone in the company, top to bottom, viewing everyone that walks in the door as a Prosumer. It is stated on the article that they appreciate the services render by the Apple Company. They are going to help you, not to pressure. Not just like the other store we usually visit who will immediately get closer to you and ask if what you want. One of the preeminent factors of Apple Store is that their products are everything works and is never locked, feel free to use as you wish. See the beauty of Apple. They have the full trust to the prosumer not to snatch and steal on their high tech gadgets. In case you have something broken, Apple will provide the fix for free. And if you need a genius, go the genius bar and get excellent service from people who want to help you and get it right the first time. They will help you to choose and get some advices. Tim Moore shared that as a prosumer, he feels great and comfortable and surely he love to be back. That’s was really amazing and very attractive on the eye of the prosumer. So if we are going to ask on how should be able to be one of them. Well Tim Moore commends you for your honesty. More business leaders needs more humility when it comes to examining their business model and accepting that changing to a social media system is going to be disruptive to the current one in place, but it is critical. Yes this is true! Most of the seller use to fool their clients in terms of giving critics about their selling product and services. They will just stress the good side and never mention on the possible instances that a product might be imparted. Just to bear and gain profit from their dirty-old strategic plan of marketing. As those of us who run businesses, they find themselves in the most anxiety filled time in modern history; along with that, there are a couple of obstacles they have to acknowledge first before proceeding. Or shall we say, there are capitalist who don’t have an adequate knowledge on handling business but they just have the sufficient strong vibes on taking risk. Today’s climate is hard on business leaders, with uncertainty at every turn, the complexity of adjusting to new demands, increasingly shorter product lifecycles, and competition.

Here are just a few helpful suggestions by Tim Moore, to see things from the Prosumer’s perspective that may help tweak or make something adjustment in operation and get us on the right path without having to do a lot of heavy lifting:

1. Understand we are all in the same boat. Every business is in the similar situation. They are all struggling to catch up the social behavior of customer and have to gain profit from it. Not just to earn money but to have a good relationship towards them. Some of the customer feels like being only treated a customer. In which some of them left feel like suspicious and distrustful. Sellers are really defensive on the price of the products and services they have. While on the prosumer side, he/she would effort to search on the internet to find cheaper. So as a result of it most of the people will only have work and face on the computer while the business profis of the community dwindle or decrease. To solve this, we should have to lift or hands on the computer and look and realize the situation and do something about it.

2. SEE the goal. To run business the only goal of it is to gain profit and growth. Right? But it is not just about it. The only way to have it is to build customer’s equity or the trust of the customer. The prosumer should have only to see and realize that there is no hidden agenda on your business. It’s not only about selling your product, but what’s important is to help and learn them from their experience. You shouldhave the resolution of experiences that they have. And finally peak an interaction with you. Look hard on your operation you still have enough time to change and apply some of the good principles.

3. Make the shift ASAP. Most of the company still operates the advertisement to use media and advertise their sales. According to BTW, they earn trust, it’s not automatic, it takes time and isn’t as easy as advertising it, we must make the shift from ’selling things’ to noticing people! We need to build a desire with our Prosumers, cultivate relationships, and create a sense of comfortable community for them. One of the good formula shared on here that Thoughts + Feelings = Actions. This would help to apply those thoughts and feelings to become the reality of that solution. Prosumer’s experience when we get an opportunity, that we are going to dazzle them with service, since we are all human, using my formula will create: Trust + Desire = Purchase, and continued experience results in loyalty and advocacy.

Indeed, the “Death of the Consumer” is not a problem or an issue which needs resolution. It’s about arising a new avenue for the clients to have a great involvement and role on the operation a new “Prosumer” is now born. Prosumer has an enormous power to enhance the growth of the community. Now it’s my turn to ask you. How do you view your customer? You should ask them. You have to know what their recommendation is, deal with them and learn from their experience. Look hard. A good technopreneur must be on it.

First, the roots in environmental research are described, and the breakthrough for the interest in consumption. Then the specific motivation for dealing with consumption in ecological economics is presented, followed by an exposition of the main research questions related to ecological economic research on consumption. As a final point, a few words are added on the development of consumption research in general, as this is important to understand the research taking place at the point of meeting point between consumption and environment. The concluding comment emphasizes that the intersecting field is still in its infancy.Consumerism also played a major role in legitimizing a social system which rewards businessmen and top commercial executives with incomes a lot of times those of ordinary workers. The consumer society gives ordinary workers some access to the good life. Surrounded by the bounty of their work-the television set, stereo, car, computer, white goods - they are less likely to question conditions of their work, the way it dominates their life, and the lack of power they have as workers. Advertisers all the time tell them these are the fruits of success, that this is what life is all about. To question a system that delivers such plenty would seem headstrong. The world was changed by Technology on a day after day basis. How people be in touch with each other has changed and how they expect companies to communicate with them is changing. Without a doubt, the marketplace has without a doubt moved beyond traditional marketing techniques and tactics into a new world of consumer fragmentation, channel and availability expansion, and increasing disparagement and control from consumers. Marketers are attempting to respond to the new world and with increased spending in opposition to digital and point of sale. In fact, billions of dollars was spent for online marketing in 2007. This number is projected to increase to a larger amount by 2010 maybe twice. But more money is not the answer but by the customization of the consumer. The real question marketers should consider is “In a fast moving, fragmented world, how can brands reach and engage customers to encourage brand choice and the Holy Grail, brand loyalty?” at this point, we try to answer this question by cutting from side to side the hype with practical insights for marketers. While it is easy to think that everyone is paying incredibly close attention to our categories and brands at all times and hanging on our every word, the reality is that the humans are busy and have much better things to do. In fact, one of the essential purposes of memory is to allow people to forget and to only call up the information from storage when needed. The way information is stored and recalled by the brain is essentially through “networks” of neurons working together. These “neural networks” are clustering tools that create associations of things linked together in our memories. So, when we call up a piece of information about something, we call up everything about it – the entire network of associations, emotions, thoughts and images that are all connected together in our brains. Interestingly, research has shown that the imagery that surrounds words and their meaning is more important than the words themselves. You can see this in action – successful brands evoke valuable meaning through associated images, metaphors, myths and legends. There’s no ‘single message’ that goes with a brand.

One good example for this is a simple video camera that is being used in a store or even in our house for a protection purposes. A video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition, initially developed by the television industry but now common in other applications as well. Video cameras are used primarily in two modes. The first, characteristic of much early television, is what might be called a live broadcast, where the camera feeds real time images directly to a screen for immediate observation. A few cameras still serve live television production, but most live connections are for security, military/tactical, and industrial operations where surreptitious or remote viewing is required. The second is to have the images recorded to a storage device for archiving or further processing; for many years, videotape was the primary format used for this purpose, but optical disc media, hard disk, and flash memory are all increasingly used. Recorded video is used in television and film production, and more often surveillance and monitoring tasks where unattended recording of a situation is required for later analysis.

The term PROSUMER originated with Alvin Toffler, who first used the term in his 1980 book The Third Wave. Toffler defined the Prosumer as someone who blurs the distinction between a consumer and a producer. The term has since come to mean a variety of things, a convergence of process innovation, global marketplaces and advanced technologies that fundamentally changes the way consumers buy, retailers sell and products are brought to market. They are the driving force behind many influential business trends, the market makers and breakers, and knowing how to leverage this segment’s assets can offer businesses a solution to the problem. During 60’s and 70’s, companies manufactured products and then tried to figure out how best to sell those products to the consumer, generally through mass market channels. But over the last two decades this pattern has reversed. We now lived in a demand-driven economy where sophisticated consumers drive change in the marketplace, fragmentation of the media has closed the pipeline to the mass market, and new products and trends are born and die in a blink of an eye, often overlapping as one trend rises and another falls.Business is changing, transforming reality with new business models, new organizational structures, new avenues of distribution, new industries, new labor demands, new regulatory standards and of course new technologies. New companies are being created and unanticipated competitors are evolving. Prosumers make and break markets, in every category, in every industry, and in virtually every part of the world. Prosumers have been the driving force behind such varied and influential business trends as extended retail hours, mass customization options, online price comparison engines, online medical information, and online access to consumer product reviews.Examples of Prosumers that embrace technologies like Web 2.0 technologies are social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, blogging, video on demand or VoD (SeaChange are one of the companies that developed and manufactured this kind of business, I know it because we’ve been there in our field trip). The Prosumers opportunity for industries lies in creating solutions that tightly integrate work and home life to attract these individuals. I have read this article from Tim Moore wherein he list a few helpful suggestions to see from the Prosumers perspective that may help us change our operation and get us on the right path.First, he stated that we should understand that we are all in the same boat. What does he mean? He said that every business is in a similar situation. They are all struggling trying to catch up to the social behavior shift which has left there showrooms empty. Face it, we have created a monster. Our poor customers are left to fend for themselves, our culture of treating them like customers has left them feeling suspicious, distrustful, with no inherent loyalty, and only focused on price and convenience, and feel defensive, suspicious and that we are the adversary as soon as they walk into our business. I do. That means whatever your price is; I’m looking on the web to find it cheaper. We all lose, business profits dwindle in our community, jobs lost. We have to understand it is what it is, and IT doesn’t work anymore. We have to lift our heads out of our computers and look around, realize the situation, and do something about it.Prosumers are the online influencers that business leaders and marketers must not just identify but also acknowledge, respect and develop relationships with in order for their products and brands to thrive. The bottom line to connect with prosumers and to get them talking about and advocating you, your brand, products and business is to deliver content that adds value to their experiences with your brand online. Then, don’t be afraid to let them take control and spread your messages. That’s where the power of the social web and online influencers to drive word-of-mouth marketing farther than ever comes into the picture, and that’s the ultimate goal for business leaders and marketers. Prosumers present an attractive opportunity for service providers to capture consumer spending. Not surprisingly, prosumers showed significant interest in having both a personal mobile network in their home and a shared calendar that can be used to coordinate the schedules of family members, friends, and coworkers. In the personal arena, they were also interested in the ability to view home security cameras while on the move, and to watch TV programs on their mobile devices. On the professional side, they are interesting in maintaining connectivity to the corporate network while at home or on the go. In addition, to avoid carrying two phones, they want to use the same mobile tools (such as email, address books, and other unified communications features) in both professional and personal pursuits.Prosumers are not just above-average consumers of technology—they are influencers. They have broad and deep relationships, use social media, and freely share information and opinions about the technologies they are using. As a result, their interactions open untapped markets to accelerate adoption. Courting the prosumer segment is a strategy to help miti-gate the risk of failing when entering new markets or introducing new services, helping to drive new service innovation. Prosumers also act as a conduit for migrating solutions from one domain to another. We have seen this happen before—email and smartphones, which started as business solutions, rapidly became primary means for consumers to stay in touch with friends and family. Short messaging service (SMS), instant messaging (IM), and social networking were adopted by businesses almost as quickly as they became available for personal use.Today’s marketers face a more difficult challenge. For one thing, consumers are far more empowered and elusive than they used to be. The past decade has seen huge changes in how people shop and buy, in how they interact with companies and brands, and also in what consumers demand from their brand partners (from 24-hour customer service to corporate social responsibility). It is our conviction that the most successful brands in the future will be those that create the deepest points of engagement with the New Consumers. In order to do that, brands need to recognize the triggers that will be most successful in activating consumption and building brand loyalty. These triggers are not the same hot buttons that fired up hyperconsumers in recent decades; instead, they are connected to a more mindful approach to consumption and to the values people have begun to crave, including authenticity, purity, naturalness, simplicity, sustainability, and rootedness.The term “Pro-sumer” first appeared in futurologist Alvin Tofflers 1980 book, “The Third Wave“. It is used to describe the merging of the producer and consumer in the “third wave” – the information age. The book accounts a history of the producer/consumer relationship during what Toffler terms the three waves – the agricultural revolution, industrial revolution and the information age – stating that the second wave divorced the producer and consumer and replaced it with a market where the majority of goods are exchanged and individuals are no longer self-sufficient. In the third wave, Toffler theorizes that the market will encounter change, where a fusing of the two previous economies will occur.

In simplest terms, no longer are businesses completely in control of their products, brands and messages. Today, consumers are in control. The leaders of this shift are the members of the social web — bloggers, microbloggers, forum posters, social networking participants, and so on, who spread messages, influence people around the world, and drive demand. Prosumers are the online influencers that marketers must not just identify but also acknowledge, respect and develop relationships with in order for their products and brands to thrive. The high level steps to leveraging the power of prosumers are as follows:1. Identify the key online influencers for your product, brand, business or industry (i.e., the prosumers).2. Acknowledge those people (e.g., send product samples, ask opinions, etc.).3. Join the online conversation where those people already spend time.4. Develop relationships with those people by interacting with them, providing useful information, and being accessible and human.5. Leverage the opportunities of the social web by creating your own branded destinations such as a blog, YouTube channel, Twitter profile, Facebook group or fan page, LinkedIn group, podcast, etc.Businesses using technologies has been continuing to develop and prosper. Technology is very common with the prosumers. Most of the people already have their own laptops or desktops with them. Since technology is a part of prosumer’s satisfaction, we can say that they are also into social networking. Famous social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogging sites, podcasting, VoDcasting and many more are also important matters for the prosumers for them to be connected always with their family and friends. They want to connect with friends and family, and as well as to see technology as a way of balancing and helping to manage their busy lives. Prosumers value any technology that enhances and serves these needs and wants. Different technologies are available in use but it also depends with the individual preferences and lifestyle that best go well with the prosumers.The concept of a prosumer is a late 20th century idea that combines some of the common characteristics of a professional and a consumer. The term is generally applied to situations where consumers are considered to have reached a level of sophistication that the professional-consumer can effectively dictate the perimeters for the production of goods and services in terms of quality and structure. The difference between the garden variety consumer and the prosumer is that the latter typically possesses such a strong working knowledge with the product that he or she can successfully determine and perhaps even design a better product offering. Prosumers are now common in many fields that were once the sole province of professionals. One of the areas where the prosumer has gained a high degree of visibility is in the home improvement industry. A number of household tasks, such as the installation of ductwork, plumbing, wallpaper hanging, and installing major appliances, are now done by many homeowners. In times past, these were all functions that were considered to be the work of professionals, with only the occasional amateur attempting this sort of high profile work.

Consumer awareness is the knowlege that a consumer should have about his/her legal rights and duties.It is must for a consumer to follow these rights.It is implemented from the protection of the consumer,so that the consumer is not exploited by the seller of the products. Every business should have objectives. One of those objectives should be to find new customers, and to keep those customers. Good customer service allows you to keep new customers, which is cheaper, quicker and easier then finding new ones! Use the related links below to learn the advantages of good customer service and for other great resources. When you are gettinng a business you must become more productive and be resourceful so that everytime the customer will be more convenient in terms of buying the goods. You must look also the qualtiy of the products because there are some customer who look the quality and the brand of the things that they want to buy.Patience would be essential seeing that there would be cases where customers would come to you with complaints so you would have to deal with in a professional manner. One of the most important paradigms governing today's marketing world is the constant drive to better segment a brand's customer and prospect base. Conventional wisdom says that the better we segment consumers, the better we can market to them. Consumer segmentation is viewed as a "best-in-class" practice across the marketing world.Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise.General meanings• Producers or professionals using consumer-grade products.• Consumers using retired professional-grade products.• Consumer targeted products, at consumer prices, but containing some professional-grade functionality.• Progressive consumer.

Prosumers for instance is considered to be both producer and consumer – of information. Anyone could be a Prosumer for good. Anyone and everyone can either be the source or the destination of today’s information. News is being posted on the internet so that many people can see it in an instant. Blogs have aroused with a bang because today’s generation is believed to be very self-expressing and verbative in showing what they want, what they feel and what they want to change. These blogs became very influential because these serve as the daily journal of people from different walks of life. Each story unfolding these blogs brought to light with the advancement of communication trailing brought to us by the internet, which mainly serves as the information highway. Compared to the old forms of media, blogs of today’s generation are considered more potent in delivering emotions and expressions. Newspapers nowadays are being released free. Because of today’s high involvement of technology, newspapers become digital for the aim attaining different reader’s profiles and backgrounds. Information for students can now be easily access with the use of Wikipedia which is considered as the most complete encyclopedia ever in the history. Not only that it gives so much information and so much help for the students, Wikipedia also lets these students share what they actually think in a certain topic or even correct information posted which they think are incorrect and faulty. In the main cities of the world such as New York and Berlin, people are being connected for free through instant access for wifi. Through this initiative, people are becoming more free of expressing their thoughts and opinions on certain topic concerning their living or their works. Also, because of free connectivity, people are becoming more aware of the latest happenings in his or her environment. In this way, people may become more alert and more watchful with the environment’s certain issues. Advertisements also become advanced as time goes by. As history told us, in the past, they primarily used paper, books, magazines and the newspapers for flacking a particular product of their company. Furtherance of information revolution brought to light many advance technologies in the field of advertisements. At the corners of the streets, totems of print advertisements such as posters and billboards were posted each saying something about their product. Advertisements also invaded the internet through bringing ads on social network sites as well as other product-giving and service-giving sites available on the net. Digital magazines as well as blogs become also prominent in promoting products and services from the companies around the globe. Communication also becomes very possible with the use of technology. Many communication software and internet services brought to light such as the Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Skype, MIRC and so much more . All of these things aimed to connect people not only between meters apart but might as well as miles and even islands and continents apart. These also made the life of many people as easy as possible because they can now receive and send their messages to their loved ones in an instant not like during the telegram era when you would probably wait several days, sometimes months, before information can be received. The virtual world of the internet also made possible for an individual to have many or several identities on line. Nowadays, human senses can now be replicated with computers or robots because they wanted to make these machines in real time.Sorry for late submission sir!!. .merry christmas!!

"DEATH OF THE CONSUMERS" in my viewpoint the phrase only emphasizes the evolution of the different roles and perspectives of the consumer with regards to its activity and function in the economy. Actually, this subject was already discussed in our class. The death of the consumers only signifies that a new breed of consumers has arisen and this dictates how and what the economy should offer to attain the expectation of their clients. These are the PROSUMERS which are characterized by having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. From a passive which are the consumers to active which are the prosumers who assumes great impact in the way the market or economy establish strong and well modified structure.

HOW DO CONSUMERS REACT?

In general, when we say consumers it is the ultimate user of the product and services. When we say consumer behaviour it essentially refers to how and why people make the purchase decisions they do. This involves the psychological processes that consumers go through in recognizing needs, finding ways to solve these needs, making purchase decisions, interpret information, make plans, and implement these plans. What influences that lead to the consumers to this kind of behaviour? If we think globally there lots of factors that affects the behaviour of the consumers.

Consumers adjust purchasing behaviour based on their individual needs and interpersonal factors. People buy to satisfy all types of needs, not just for utilitarian purposes. Personality traits and characteristics are also important to establish how consumers meet their needs. They will buy what is practical or useful, and they make purchases based more on quality and durability than on physical beauty.

Two interesting issues in decisions are:

* Variety seeking (where consumers seek to try new brands not because these brands are expected to be “better” in any way, but rather because the consumer wants a “change of pace,” and * “Impulse” purchases—unplanned buys. This represents a somewhat “fuzzy” group. For example, a shopper may plan to buy vegetables but only decide in the store to actually buy broccoli and corn. Alternatively, a person may buy an item which is currently on sale, or one that he or she remembers that is needed only once inside the store.

A number of factors involve consumer choices. In some cases, consumers will be more motivated. For example, one may be more careful choosing a gift for an in-law than when buying the same thing for one self. Some consumers are also more motivated to comparison shop for the best prices, while others are more convenience oriented. Personality impacts decisions. Some like variety more than others, and some are more receptive to stimulation and excitement in trying new stores. Perception influences decisions. Some people, for example, can taste the difference between generic and name brand foods while many cannot. Selective perception occurs when a person is paying attention only to information of interest. For example, when looking for a new car, the consumer may pay more attention to car ads than when this is not in the horizon. Some consumers are put off by perceived risk. Thus, many marketers offer a money back guarantee. Consumers will tend to change their behaviour through learning—e.g., they will avoid restaurants they have found to be crowded and will settle on brands that best meet their tastes. Consumers differ in the values they hold (e.g., some people are more committed to recycling than others who will not want to go through the hassle). We will consider the issue of lifestyle under segmentation.

Adding to the complexity of the issue is the fact that purchase decisions are not always made on the basis of an "attribute-by-attribute" comparison (attribute-based processing). Consumers also make decisions based on an overall evaluation of their impressions, intuition, and knowledge based on past experience, or attitude-based processing. Learned attitudes also influence these decisions. For example, parents who drank Kool-Aid as children often buy it for their kids, either because they associate it with fond memories or just because of brand familiarity or loyalty.

There is time and effort associated with each of these strategies, though attribute-based processing requires significantly more effort on the consumer's part. To dedicate the time required for an attribute-by-attribute comparison, consumers need the combination of motivation and the time or opportunity to use such a strategy.

Other contributing factors were discussed in Mantel's study, such as personality differences and each individual's "need for cognition." Need for cognition reflects to what extent individuals "engage in and enjoy thinking." People with a high need for cognition tend to evaluate more and make more optimal in-store purchase decisions. This is in part because they do not react to displays and in-store promotions unless significant price reductions are offered. Low-need cognition people react easily when a product is put on promotion regardless of the discount offered.

Consumers are also affected by their perceived roles, which are acquired through social processes. These roles create individuals' needs for things that will enable them to perform those roles, improve their performance in those roles, facilitate reaching their goals, or symbolize a role/relationship, much in the way a woman's engagement ring symbolizes her taking on the role of a wife.

Other factors that influence purchase decisions include the importance attributed to the decision. People are not likely to take as much time doing brand comparisons of mouthwash as they are a new car. The importance of the purchase, as well as the risk involved, adds to how much time and effort will be spent evaluating the merits of each product or service under consideration. In cases of importance such as the purchase of a car or home appliance, consumers are more likely to use rational, attribute-based comparisons, in order to make the most informed decision possible.

In some cases, consumers make very little effort to evaluate product choices. "Habitual evaluation" refers to a state in which the consumer disregards marketing materials placed in a store, whether because of brand loyalty, lack of time, or some other reason. Indeed, evaluating all relevant marketing information can become time consuming if it is done every time a person shops.

On the opposite side of the coin, "extensive evaluation" is the state in which consumers consider the prices and promotions of all brands before making a choice. There are also in-between states of evaluation, depending again on the importance of the purchase and the time available to make a decision (some consumers, usually those who earn higher incomes, value their time more than the cost savings they would incur). Decisions on whether to compare various products at any given time may be a factor of the anticipated economic returns, search costs or time constraints, and individual household purchasing patterns.

When it comes time to actually make purchases, however, one person in the family often acts as an "information filter" for the family, depending on what type of purchase is being made and that person's expertise and interest. The information filter passes along information he or she considers most relevant when making a purchase decision, filtering out what is considered unimportant and regulating the flow of information. For example, men are more often the family members who evaluate which tools to purchase, while children pass along what they consider to be seminal information about toys. At times, family members may take on additional roles such as an "influencer," contributing to the overall evaluation of goods being considered for purchase. Or one person may act as the "decider," or the final decision-maker. Ultimately, purchase decisions are not made until consumers feel they know enough about the product, they feel good about what they're buying, and they want it enough to act on the decision

Consumer reacts constantly based on what they consume, buy, render and other products and services that are available in the market. These causes for the business components to keep on track on the consumer behaviour and provide the demands of the consumers. Business sectors dance with the tune on what their clients and customer’s wants and the type of the products and services that would satisfy their need.

THE NEW BREED!

Prosumer has taken on conflicting spins wherein the business sectors sees the prosumer as a means of offering a wider range of products and services whereas activist see the prosumer as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. According to Wikipedia Prosumer is defined as a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or producer with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a economy segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. It can also be thought of as converse to the consumer with a passive role, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. More recently, in the mental health field, the word "'prosumer'" has come to mean "consumer/provider," also known as a "peer provider," such as a peer support specialist or other mental health consumer who also provides peer support mental health services (background on peer-run mental health services). The word "Prosumerise" has been coined by Widality to represent the merging of the IT and mobility requirements of the prosumer, consumer, and enterprise.

In general meanings Prosumer could be producers or professionals using consumer-grade products, consumers using retired professional-grade products consumer targeted products, at consumer prices, but containing some professional-grade functionality and progressive consumer. Out of these definitions, progressive consumer most likely fits the term “PROSUMER” wherein it implies a modern consumer who has changed their approach to the traditional methods and habits of purchasing products. A Prosumer is researching a products value, performance, and price through social networks (twitter, tumblr, facebook) and consumer product reviews (such as Amazon.com), and prices comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com and Thefind.com, before making a final decision or purchase. Within these web sites a Prosumer researches all aspects of a products performance, price and social acceptance in relative comparison to similar products within the same category. The Prosumer is searching for the highest quality product that best meets their personal needs for the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend. Based on that search criteria, the Prosumer is also willing to venture into new shopping distribution channels in order to purchase that product. The Prosumer terminology was identified by the Earl Jean Brand, where the company recognized a new consumer niche of premium denim consumers who because of the economic downturn desired a high quality, status image, socially acceptable and high performing jeans wear products at value prices.

The Prosumer Revolution

• Our industry is seeing a new breed of consumer that is more marketing savvy and demanding• We call them PROSUMERS• Prosumers are…_ Empowered by technology_ Proactive in seeking out information and opinions_ Active in sharing their views and experiences with others_ Ahead of the curve in their attitudes and behaviors• As important, prosumers are acutely aware of their value to businesses and brands_ They know they have more choices today in where they shop and what they buy (20-fold increase in food and HH product introductions since 1970)_ And they know that means that the balance of power has shifted—from manufacturers, marketers, and retailers to the end userThe Prosumer Mindset

Prosumers are the 20–30% of people who make and break markets… • Prosumers are not a group apart, but rather part of every group_ In fast-moving, trendy groups, such as teens _ But also in more settled groups such as working moms and seniors• As part of the segment, rather than outsiders to it, they reflect the segment, whether it be soccer moms or on-the-go snackers • But being more proactive than most, and more keen to find out information, test it, and share it, they also tend to lead their segments• When people are given access to swathes of information, bombarded with claims and counterclaims, and have the means to gather, compare, and share opinions, some will do it more than others—they are prosumers • Not so far ahead of consumers as to be entirely different; just bumped up (or down) a notch in a pattern that is consistent and, we’ve found, predictable• Within any given context—education, food shopping, vacationing, entertainment—prosumers are the ones who are motivated to:_ Find out sooner_ Find out more_ Act on what they’ve found out_ Tell others

The prosumers see markets as:“Conversations" with the new economy moving from passive consumers to active prosumers. For instance, Amazon.com emerged as an ecommerce leader partially due to its ability to construct customer relations as conversations rather than simple, one-time sales. Amazon supports exchange of information among customers; it provides spaces for customers to add to the site, in the form of reviews (A review is an evaluation of a publication, such as a movie, video game, musical composition, book, or a piece of hardware like a car, appliance, or computer.).MODEL OF PROSUMPTION• described a model of prosumption where customers participate in creation of product in active and ongoing way.• the consumer co-innovates and coproduces the products they consume• Customers can self organize to create their own products

The most advanced users in facts no longer wait

 User no longer waits for an invitation to turn a product into a platform for their innovations. Users or customers can form their websites and communicate online to share product-related information, collaborate and customized project, engage in e-commerce and swap tips, tools and products hacks. Working in the prosumer community for competitive advantage.(Second life originator Linden Labs has broken most of the conventional rules for building a multiplier video game and set the standard for customer innovation in all industries.) Prosumers think that they deserve the right to operate freely as customer-driven economy while big corporations think that they should be some sanctions and regulations CUSTOMERS AS CO-INNOVATIONS

 Episodes of users driven creativity in history of invention. Great importance hobbyists and amateur creators play in advancing technology Most companies still consider innovation and amateur creativity as less representative in their core markets. Smart companies must reach out to involve customer and lead users directly in their product development process. However customer innovation is going self-serve with the rise of prosumer communities. Customers Co-Innovation Goes Self-Serve

David Pescovitz, senior editor of MAKE (a magazine, a magazine that is devoted to do it yourself innovations) states that:

-------the phenomena of DO IT YOUSELF have been spreading widely because innovators don’t have to wait for the next electronics meeting to express their ideas. With today’s technology it can be done anytime anywhere.

-----------People get big thrills from hacking a product, making something unique, showing it to their friends, and having other people adopt their ideas.

------The Lego Corporation, best known for making little interlocking plastic bricks has had a dramatic experience with prosumers.

------In fact, Lego had one of earliest and most vibrant prosumers communities that formed around it.When many hobbyists sent letters of suggestions on how to enhance the products, Lego threatened to file a lawsuit

----- Lego’s policy backfired and users rebelled because they felt there ideas are not heard.

The Prosumption Dilemma: Control versus Customer Hacking

 Customers get what they want Companies get free R&D

Apple’s iPod

 The original use: portable music player When customers hack it: Why not transform the iPod into a general-purpose wearable computer that has everything: portable music player, expanded memory, video games, PDA and Podzilla

In this kind of scenario, convergence and innovation takes place to give comfort to the satisfaction of needs of their customers. This is because People shift from consumer to contributor and creator. They react proactively that would result into a good business ideas and concepts that will increase or establish creativeness and competition toward business companies.

'Death of the consumer': Innovation policy needs new perspective on role of citizensUnderstanding economys and people's purchasing patterns is important, but new research has found one area where the idea of citizens as consumers can be harmful: innovation policy. Work carried out at the CENTRIM (Centre for Research in Innovation Management) in Brighton and SPRU Science and Technology Policy Research in Sussex appears to show that to encourage innovation, policymakers need to broaden their view of the role of citizens in the knowledge economy: to embrace the idea of citizens-as-innovators, to take advantage not only of the specialist knowledge of scientists and other academics, but of lay choices, and lay knowledge that are also critical for innovation too.During the past year, the User-Centric Innovation research team from the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex have explored user-centric innovation in a number of sectors. "We have studied innovation in medical engineering, the creative industries and elsewhere and in every sector we find examples of non-specialists who choose to innovate themselves," says Steve Flowers, of CENTRIM. The team say that if the users of products and services can be more than an inspiration, but can also innovate themselves, then it makes little sense for social scientists to regard citizens only as consumers in national systems of innovation. "We need to abandon the notion of citizens-as-consumers, or at the very least temper it with the additional idea of citizens-as-innovators," says Flowers. "Innovation policy needs to recognise that user-centric innovation spans the whole spectrum from users contributing ideas to users creating or changing products, services and systems themselves.""A striking example of user-centric innovation in the environment is the Transition Town movement," says Gristock. "Local people are mobilising themselves to create innovative products and services that help alleviate climate change and dependence on dwindling oil reserves. When local people in Modbury banned plastic bags from the entire town, the choice to innovate in this way came not from policymakers, or business, but from locals themselves. Citizens are not just consumers. They are innovators too."

________________________________________The world experiences a fast-changing technology evolution. This includes the convergence of technology which refers to the trend of various technological systems to progress towards executing similar tasks in a more integrated manner. This corresponds to the originally separate technologies previously which now became a general purpose gadget, machine or equipment such as smart phones, refrigerator, computers and many other electronic devices, which are made more efficient, productive and interactive, but more expensive.Smart phones previously are just mainly used for texting and calling people situated in the remote areas. But, due to the technological convergence, smart phones now are made handy, smarter, sophisticated and interactive. These are now used for calling, texting, capturing images, recording voice and video, locating someone (via GPS), retrieving electronic files, playing games and even connecting to the internet. Likewise, the computers do the same. They almost do similar tasks, in only varies with the cost, speed and portability an electronic device can offer.During our previous discussion, it has been said that convergence occurs due to several factors. These include customerization, community, channels, competitive value and choice. Part of the business strategy is offering something much more interesting products at an affordable and a reasonable cost. Most of the customers today, or let us say, the “prosumers”, depend on the use of technology disregarding the age. So, the technopreneurs tend to make it a challenge on how to satisfy their prosumers’ needs and demands. The new trend today is not anymore about having products displayed and letting the costumers just run out of choice but just either take it or leave it. It is rather about answering what the prosumers generally need to make a good market out of their product. However, not only the prosumers are greatly benefited with the technological convergence but also the technopreneurs. Because of convergence, people are having a much easier way of connecting to the Internet and we all know that there are a lot of opportunities available over the net. These include the fast, easy, effective and free way of advertising products which is really a great advantage to the technopreneurs’ view.The scenarios mentioned above are just instances of making meaning out of your business. As what Guy Kawasaki said, the core essence of technopreneurship is making meaning out of your business to make money rather than making money out of your business without making meaning which is not possible. He also stressed that making meaning corresponds to changing the world and making it a better place. In addition to that, he cited some techniques on making meaning. First, your product must be able to increase the quality of life. We are not blinded by the fact that most people would rather go to a product which mobilizes their work at an affordable cost. With this practical mindset, your business shall motivate the world to make people more creative and productive so as to increase the quality of life. Second, your product shall right a wrong.